Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The purpose of the study is to identify the challenges and prospects of distance education for adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main research method was the survey. Teenagers, parents and teachers were interviewed (330 people). One of the leaders of the study was a representative of the Technical Institute of NEFU in Neryungri. The results of the study made it possible to identify and analyze the main inconveniences of distance learning that young people suffered from. The following difficulties were identified: different teaching approaches (48.2%), lack of technical devices (7.6%), an increase in the number of homework assignments (86%).

Understanding the aspirations and goals of the youth is essential to developing effective employment policies. Policies should be designed to allow educational and professional aspirations of young people to align with pathways to achieving them. The data collected is nationally representative and age distribution is similar across countries. Recent surveys on youth or sub-populations of youth have included questions to capture career aspirations and life goals in the time of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Incorporating the youth aspirations and employment module for High Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS) into multitopic household surveys has several advantages. In conclusion, measuring youth aspirations helps shed light on the possible employment outcomes that can be observed in adulthood and play a role in breaking poverty circles, which is highly relevant for public policy.

While there has been a global rush to generate rapid evidence on COVID-19 mental health impacts among adults, limited evidence exists on the potential impacts on children.

This is the protocol for our rapid review that seeks to (i) understand the immediate impact of COVID-19’s first wave on the mental health of children and adolescents (0–19 years); and (ii) apply lessons learned from this pandemic to mitigate the impacts of future health crises.

The key research questions of this review are: 

• What has been the immediate impact of COVID-19 and associated containment measures on the mental health and psychosocial well-being of children and adolescents?
• How and which risk and protective factors have affected mental health during COVID-19 and have they varied across subgroups of children and adolescents?

Children in the Sylhet division, in the Northeast of Bangladesh, face complex challenges in accessing quality education, at all school levels. The region ranks among the poorest performers in learning attainment across education levels. UNICEF Bangladesh and its partners have leveraged resources from the Let Us Learn (LUL) initiative to deliver three alternative learning pathways for out-of-school children and adolescents in remote areas of Sylhet. The three pathways cover key transition points in a child’s education: Getting ready to start school (Pre-Primary Education programme), learning foundational skills (A​bility-B​ased Accelerated Learning programme) and entering the job market (Alternative Learning Pathway programme). This report presents evidence on the achievements of the three programmes, highlighting key policy recommendations. The findings draw on analysis of programme monitoring data, qualitative case studies, focus group discussions and interviews. This paper is one of a series of research reports presenting emerging evidence on programmes supported by the LUL initiative, which aims to expand quality learning opportunities for disadvantaged children in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Liberia, Madagascar and Nepal.

More than 60% of the 1,700 infectious diseases that affect human come from animals and zoonotic pandemics, after starting from sporadic phenomena limited to rural areas, have become a global emergency. The repeated and frequent zoonotic outbreaks such as the most recent COVID-19 pandemic can be attributed also to human activities. In particular, the creation of enormous intensive domestic animal farms, the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, the destruction of forests, the consumption of the meat of wild animals and the illegal animal trade are all factors causing the insurgence and the transmission of zoonotic diseases from animals to humans. The purpose of this study was to explore the knowledge of the One Health concept including the zoonotic risk potentially derived from illegally traded pet animals and wildlife among adolescents in 6 different countries (Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Mauritius, and Japan).

As sports reinitiate around the country, the incidence of COVID-19 among youth soccer athletes remains unknown. This paper aims to determine the incidence of COVID-19 among youth soccer athletes and the risk mitigation practices utilized by youth soccer organizations.

This study aimed to prospectively examine changes in adolescent sleep before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in adolescents with and without ADHD. Participants were 122 adolescents (ages 15-17; 61% male; 48% with ADHD). Parents reported on adolescents‘ sleep duration and difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep (DIMS); adolescents reported on sleep patterns, sleep duration, delayed sleep/wake behaviors, and daytime sleepiness before (September 2019-February 2020) and during (May-June 2020) COVID-19. Adolescents also reported on their health behaviors, COVID-19-related negative affect, and difficulties concentrating due to COVID-19.

The COVID‐19 pandemic is the most serious global public health crisis since the 1918 influenza pandemic. This study is the first to assess its mental health impact across the lifespan in the United States in adolescents, adults, and health care workers.

Evidence and objective assessment are needed more than ever to help enhance the rights and well-being of the world’s children. Researching the changing world around us and evaluating progress are two sides of the same coin, both critical to reimagining a better future for children. In recognition of this, UNICEF celebrates and showcases innovative and influential research and evaluations from our offices around the world every year. For 2020, Innocenti and the Evaluation Office joined forces to find the most rigorous UNICEF studies with greatest influence on policies and programmes that benefit children.

In India, due to the closure of all schools, colleges and other learning institutions, more than 320 million students have been affected1. Out of these students, 247 million are enrolled in elementary and secondary education, while 28 million had been attending pre-school education. In addition to these numbers, more than  6 million girls and boys were already out of school before the advent of COVID-19. This guide is designed for principals, head teachers, teachers and parents to help school-going children maintain their mental health and wellness during these difficult times.

When speaking about the impact of COVID-19 on their lives, young women and young men prioritize different areas. Young women are more likely to speak to the importance of COVID-19’s impact on education, food, and safety. Both young women and young men prioritize impacts on income, but for young men, this is a much bigger concern. Only young women are raising concerns about access to information, implying that this is a bigger obstacle and gap for young women than it is for young men.

Smartphone addiction, Internet addiction, family members or friends infected with coronavirus, graduation affected by the epidemic, levels of separation anxiety, physical injury fear, and tendency to adopt an emotion-focused coping style were associated with increased levels of respondents’ depressive symptoms.
Targeted intervention measures could be formulated based on the significant influencing factors on anxiety and clinical depressive symptoms.

The incidence of COVID-19 in children and teenagers is only about 2% in China. Children had mild symptoms and hardly infected other children or adults. It is worth considering that children are the most vulnerable to respiratory pathogens, but fatal SARS-like virus had not caused severe cases among them. According to the pathological studies of COVID-19 and SARS, a sharp decrease in T lymphocytes leads to the breakdown of the immune system. The cellular immune system of children differs from that of adults may be the keystone of atypical clinical manifestations or even covert infection. The frequent childhood vaccinations and repeated pathogens infections might be resulting in trained immunity of innate immune cells, immune fitness of adaptive immune cells or cross-protection of antibodies in the children. Therefore, due to lack of specific vaccine, some vaccines for tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia may have certain application potential for the front-line health workers in the prevention and control of COVID-19. However, for high-risk susceptible populations, such as the elderly with basic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, it is necessary to explore the remedial effect of the planned immune process on their immunity to achieve the trained immunity or immune fitness, so as to improve their own antiviral ability.

Au Niger comme partout dans le monde le coronavirus a crée une psychose qui a conduit l’Etat Nigérien avec l’appui de ses partenaires Techniques et Financiers à prendre des mesures adéquates pour lutter contre la maladie. Ces mesures ont malheureusement perturbé le système économique et social chez la jeunesse.