Children and COVID-19 Research Library

This study aimed to assess the proportion of adolescents and young people (AYP) in Nigeria who changed their frequency of e-cigarette use and tobacco smoking during the COVID-19 pandemic; and factors associated with the increase, decrease or no change in e-cigarette use and tobacco smoking (including night smoking). This study was a cross-sectional study of AYP recruited from all geopolitical zones in the country. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine if respondents’ health HIV and COVID-19 status and anxiety levels were associated with changes in e-cigarette use and tobacco smoking frequency.

This study examined psychosocial impact of Covid-19 on the achievement  of  secondary  school  adolescents  with  hearing disabilities  in  English  Language  in  Lagos  State.  A  survey research  design  was  employed  with  population  of hearing-impairedadolescents. A sample of hundred adolescents with hearing   impairment   was   selected   for   the   study   using purposive  sampling  technique  to  select  the participants  and simple  random  sampling  to  select  four  schools  practicing inclusion.  The  instruments  for  data  collection  were  ELAT (English Language Achievement Test) and Psychosocial Scale (PSS) with reliabilities of 0.69 and 0.79 respectively. Pearson Product   Moment   Correlation   Coefficient   and   Multiple Regression   were   used   to   analyse   data   collected.   The hypotheses    formulated    weretested    at    0.05    level    of significance.

The emergence of the novel Coronavirus in late 2019 led to disruptions in the food, economic and health systems. There are projections that the pandemic will worsen hunger and malnutrition in families with young children and women of reproductive age in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Therefore, this study investigated household food security status, dietary patterns and nutritional status of children in a Nigerian community during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total sample of 200 mother-child pairs was selected from a Nigerian community using a multistage sampling technique. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire, which had four sections, was used for data collection. A food security survey questionnaire was used to assess household food security, and a food frequency questionnaire was used to capture child food patterns. Dietary diversity was assessed using 24-hour dietary recall, and nutritional status was measured using anthropometric parameters. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

About 2 billion children were affected by school closures globally at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to documented learning losses while children were out of school, and an especially precarious future academic path for pupils in developing countries where learning and continued enrolment remain important issues. There is an urgent need to understand the extent of these learning and enrolment losses, and possible policy options to get children back on track. This paper studies the extent of learning losses and recovery in Africa's most populous country, Nigeria, and provides some evidence that a full recovery is possible. Using data from a random sample of schools, we find significant learning losses of about .6 standard deviations in English and Math. However, a program designed to slow down the curriculum and cover what was missed during school closures led to a rebound within 2 months, and a recovery of all learning losses. Students who were a part of the program do not lag behind one year later and remain in school.

There has been a plethora of research since the emergence of COVID-19 around the world but several of these studies have not focused on the psychosocial implication of the novel Coronavirus on children in Nigeria. Though the psychosocial impact of the virus is huge, there is paucity of literature addressing the needs of the Nigerian children during the pandemic. The paper explored the psychosocial implications (health, poverty issues, safety needs and learning) of COVID-19 on children in Nigeria. The study recommends the expansion of social assistance for children of families in extreme poverty, and there is a need to adapt standard physical distancing protocols to reflect the characteristics of children in different settings. Also, the Government of Nigeria should prioritize child-centred services. Training parents and caregivers on how to talk to their children about the pandemic, managing their mental health and providing tools to help children’s learning will be crucial.

This study investigated how the sudden shift in the system of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the students, how the external environment impacted their performance, and the structural barriers encountered, which equally had significant impacts on students at junior secondary schools (JSS) in Orlu, Imo State, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive survey research method. The simple random sampling method was adopted with a sample size of 650 students. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire, rated using a four-point Likert scale, and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, and means. 60.10, 58.80, 59.50, 59.00, and 59.50% of the respondents agreed to research questions respectively.

This study examines the plight of Almajiri children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria within the context of religion, child rights, and human rights. Under the cover of being placed under an Islamic scholar for purposes of learning the Koran, the future of the Almajirai children has been mortgaged by the absence of proper care and denial of their rights. As a check to community spreading of the deadly coronavirus, the Almajiri children, notorious for street begging and largely found in Northern Nigeria were billed to be evacuated to their respective home states. Rather than moving these children to their home states in northern Nigeria, the majority of them were taken to the southern part of the country thus leading to intergroup disharmony and suspicion. Worried by the above, the study thus interrogates the nexus between the forceful removal and infringement of the rights of children, the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, questionable parenting, and failed governance. The rancor generated from evacuating these children to other parts of Nigeria raises the question of what has gone wrong with parenting and leadership. Sources for writing this paper have been derived from newspapers, journals, and online sources using the descriptive method of analysis.

Using a quasi-experimental design, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the ‘Eggs Make Kids Sharp & Bright and Strong & Active’ demand-creation campaign in Nigeria. The intervention arm received emotionally compelling radio and television advertisements about eggs, and was exposed to promotional activities and advertising about eggs at points of purchase, schools and health facilities; the comparison arm received no intervention. Children 6–59 months of age (intervention: n = 1359; comparison: n = 1485) were assessed 14 months apart. Intent-to-treat analyses with analysis of covariance method assessed the impact of the intervention on caregivers' behaviour towards eggs, caregivers' willingness to pay for eggs, availability of eggs in households, and consumption of eggs by children 6–59 months of age. Analyses were adjusted for possible confounders and perceived effects of COVID-19 on finances and food consumption.

The study assessed women's childbirth expectations and perceived effects of COVID-19 protocols on delivery in selected healthcare facilities in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive survey research design. 304 women were purposively recruited from March through December 2020 from selected healthcare facilities in Umuahia. A validated researcher-developed questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Data obtained were subjected to descriptive statistics of frequencies, means, and standard deviations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the mental health of adolescents. This study is aimed at determining the prevalence and psychological correlates of stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic among high school adolescents in Nigeria. This is a cross-sectional descriptive online study involving 1008 Nigerian adolescents. Respondents completed study-specific sociodemographic questionnaire, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale– 21, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale-10, Paediatric Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction, Insomnia Severity Index-7, Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised, Drug Abuse Screening Test -10.

During the lockdown, there was a disruption in the provision of and access to family planning (FP) services in developing countries due to the covid 19 pandemic mostly because of restrictions on transportation, border closures, and closure of some healthcare institutions.This study examined the impact of covid-19 on the need for and access to family planning among Nigerian women and access to family planning among Nigerian women.

Emerging evidence from high income countries showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has had negative effects on population and reproductive health behaviour. This study provides a sub-Saharan Africa perspective by documenting the social consequences of COVID-19 and its relationship to fertility preference stability and modern contraceptive use in Nigeria. It analysed panel data collected by Performance Monitoring for Action in Nigeria. Baseline and Follow-up surveys were conducted before the COVID-19 outbreak (November 2019-February 2020) and during the lockdown respectively (May-July 2020). Analysis was restricted to married non-pregnant women during follow-up (n = 774). Descriptive statistics and generalized linear models were employed to explore the relationship between selected social consequences of COVID-19 and fertility preferences stability (between baseline and follow-up) as well as modern contraceptives use.

A good number of parents of children with Down syndrome are prone to depressive disorders. The depressive feelings are attributed to negative perceptions of the situation, self, and the future. This study explored the impact of the family health model of rational-emotive behavior therapy on depressive symptoms in parents of children with intellectual disability of Down syndrome in the COVID-19 pandemic era. This is a randomized pretest–posttest control group design that recruited 88 parents of children with intellectual disability of Down syndrome. The depressive symptoms in parents at Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3 using the Beck depressive inventory and Hamilton depression rating scale was measured. A family health model rational emotive behaviour therapy intervention in treating the depressive symptoms affecting the parents was adopted.

Health is a resource for daily existence and wellbeing. Mental, social, emotional, spiritual, psychological and physical health constitute an overall essence of that well-being. The COVID-19 epidemic has had a profoundly negative impact on women, children, and society as a whole by causing unfathomable loss, grief, pain, and solitude. The pandemic has pushed many families into poverty and exacerbated conditions of inequality with women and children exposed to violence and other deprivation which deeply impacted on their mental health. The study employed the use of content analysis of secondary sources of data, and the social stress, social model and general strain theories constituting the theoretical framework for examining the subject under investigation.