Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Adolescents have come to be greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing containment measures in recent months. The aim of the present study was to examine the relations among religiosity, meaning-making, fear of COVID-19, and subjective well-being within a moderated mediation model. Three hundred and sixteen late adolescents (173 women and 143 men) in Poland volunteered to take part in the study. The results show that meaning-making mediated relationships between religiosity and life satisfaction, religiosity and positive affect, and religiosity and negative affect. In addition, these mediation effects were moderated by the fear of COVID-19. Specifically, the indirect effects were stronger for adolescents with high fear than for those with low fear, which indicates that fear of COVID-19 serves as a ‘warning’ factor.

This paper aims to prospectively document changes in adolescents’ sleep before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to examine their impact on adolescents’ perceived stress. Sixty-two typically developing adolescents participated in the study before (Time 1: January 15 to March 13, 2020) and during (Time 2: May 15 to June 30, 2020) the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. At Time 1, each participant’s sleep pattern was assessed in the home environment using actigraphy and sleep logs for seven consecutive nights. Adolescents completed a battery of questionnaires in which they reported on their sleep schedule, duration, and quality, as well as their activities at bedtime, their daytime sleepiness, and their social/emotional behavior. The participants’ parents provided demographic information. At Time 2, each participant completed a sleep log, the same battery of questionnaires regarding sleep, and the Perceived Stress Scale.

The purposes of this study were to assess whether mental well-being has changed after introduction of the lockdown measures compared with that before, whether this change differs between boys and girls, and whether this change is associated with COVID-19–related concerns. This is a two-wave prospective study among Dutch adolescents using data collected up to one year before the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 224) and 5–8 weeks after the first introduction of lockdown measures (n = 158). Mental well-being was assessed by three indicators: life satisfaction, internalizing symptoms, and psychosomatic health.

The population of Jordan has increased rapidly over the past 10 years, with the country taking in more than a million Syrian refugees, of whom nearly half are below the age of 18 years. The Government of Jordan, supported by the international community, has made substantial efforts to provide basic services for its refugees, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put additional pressure on the country’s limited resources. Given that young people account for a relatively large proportion of the population, especially the refugee population, it is critical that we understand what impacts the pandemic is having on adolescent girls and boys in order to ensure that the national response by government, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and development partners including the United Nations (UN) are adolescent-friendly and equitable. This research brief draws on the findings of a questionnaire-based telephone survey involving nearly 3000 adolescent boys and girls, conducted as part of the Region-wide Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) longitudinal research programme which is co-funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.

As elsewhere, in the State of Palestine, the burden of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality has overwhelmingly fallen on older people. There is, however, growing recognition that younger people, including adolescents aged 10–19 years who account for more than a fifth of the population (1), are also suffering negative impacts on their health because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that nearly 40% of the population in the State of Palestine are refugees it is important to distinguish between the experiences of the non-refugee and the refugee adolescent populations, and within the latter, those living in camp and non-camp settings. Such disaggregated evidence will help to inform national response plans by government and development partners to ensure that they are both adolescent-responsive and equitable. This policy brief draws on findings of a questionnaire-based telephone survey involving just over 1000 adolescent boys and girls which was conducted as part of the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) longitudinal research programme.

This brief country study draws out key findings on the impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19, in project locations in Tanzania. The overall research aims are to discern broader drivers of mental ill-health and the preventative factors that can protect mental well-being of adolescents. The project also seeks to capture wider attitudes towards accessing mental health support, rather than charting the impacts on well-being of a particular crisis. While Covid-19 was not the focus of this project, given that data collection started during the onset of the pandemic, in-country researchers were able to incorporate some questions into the qualitative component of the mixed method baseline study, exploring the effects Covid-19 was having on the mental health of adolescents. This project continues to adapt to the new context and will seek to understand the impact of the pandemic where feasible

This country case study examines the impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19, in project locations in Viet Nam. The overall research aims are to discern broader drivers of mental ill-health and the preventative factors that protect mental well-being of adolescents. The project also seeks to capture wider attitudes towards accessing mental health support, rather than charting the impacts on well-being of a particular crisis.

Emerging research suggests that the global prevalence of child and adolescent mental illness has increased considerably during COVID-19. However, substantial variability in prevalence rates have been reported across the literature. This study aims to ascertain more precise estimates of the global prevalence of child and adolescent clinically elevated depression and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19; to compare these rates with prepandemic estimates; and to examine whether demographic (eg, age, sex), geographical (ie, global region), or methodological (eg, pandemic data collection time point, informant of mental illness, study quality) factors explained variation in prevalence rates across studies.

To ensure that adolescents continue to lead healthy, well-adjusted lives—“sustainable lives”—after the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to examine the latter’s impact on various aspects of their lives compared to the socio-cultural context before the outbreak. This study used national representative data on Korean adolescents to analyze the impact of the pandemic on adolescent life from various perspectives, with a focus on gender differences. Our findings confirm that during the pandemic physical activity and sitting time for study purposes decreased, while sleeping and sitting for purposes other than studying increased, with more pronounced changes among girls. Drinking and smoking decreased and boys experienced greater decreases. The findings also indicated that the pandemic generated positive outcomes for mental health: stress, sadness/despair, and suicidal ideation decreased, which was counterintuitive to our general expectations, with a greater impact seen among girls.

Societal trends and COVID-19 quarantines have increased the number of adolescents experiencing social isolation, placing them at heightened risk for mental health issues. The aim of this review is to explore protective factors that might mitigate psychological harm in the presence of social isolation. A systematic literature review was conducted using Fink’s step-by-step process. Four library databases were searched, and results were reported using PRISMA. Of the 246 studies reviewed, 12 studies were retained following the quality assessment. The sample includes 14,064 participants from USA, Australia, and Europe, ranging from 10-19 years old. Social connectedness (ie., family connectedness, school connectedness, social support), self-esteem, and prosocial behaviors were the most common protective factors to social isolation. Additional factors such as self-efficacy, optimism, and ethnic identity are discussed. Implications for future research are recommended, including the need to explore spiritual, biological, and sociocultural factors influencing social connectedness and mental health in adolescents.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people, and some researchers postulate that a mental health crisis will follow. The immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health are now starting to be published, and results appear to be mixed. There is no research, to the authors’ knowledge, that empirically examines the functioning of young people following intervention from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Crisis Teams in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. This service evaluation aims to do this using data from an NHS trust that supports 1.4 million people in the North East of England.

In response to new and exacerbated challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Indigenous children and youth in Canada have developed innovative and holistic solutions to amplify their voices, continue cultural engagement and combat social isolation for themselves and their communities as a whole. In this analysis, we have selected three Indigenous philosophical tenets as an ethical orientation for discussion of how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the well-being of Indigenous young people. The guiding values of interconnected relationships, holism and Indigenous-informed restorative justice help us interpret existing pandemic-specific literature and identify, define and prioritize considerations of child and youth well-being from an Indigenous-centred worldview. This analysis can (a) help inform future pandemic measures affecting Indigenous young people and (b) foster similar considerations for Indigenous communities in other regions of the world.