Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The pandemic has served to further highlight the politics of care, making space for public debate about who is worthy of care, who cares, for whom, and under what conditions.This short commentary is about the definition of care and related public policies.

Our understanding of child, adolescent, and caregiver mental health (MH) problems during the coronavirus pandemic, and which interventions are needed, may be advanced by consumer input. 133 general population caregivers reported top MH problems and needs for themselves and their children, using standardized and idiographic measures. Linear regression models have been applied to quantitative data and thematic analysis to qualitative data. Caregivers’ COVID-era depression and anxiety symptom means fell within the clinical range, as did their children’s MH symptoms. Caregiver reported child and adolescent symptoms were positively associated with number of children in the home. Caregiver and caregiver-reported child and adolescent symptoms were more pronounced in regions with more lenient COVID-19 restrictions. Among the kinds of help most urgently needed, MH services were ranked #1 for caregivers and adolescents, #2 for 6–12 year-olds, and #3 for 1–5 year-olds. Top problems identifed for each age group highlight pressing pandemic-related intervention targets.

Drawing from an analysis of responses to COVID affecting the ECCE sector in the US, including the narratives of early childhood educators, this study engages with several questions. These include: How is care work with children constructed and affected by COVID-19? How might current responses and policies be understood through the lens of social citizenship and the collective/the individual? How do these issues reflect the precarity of the ECCE sector? How are embodied and emotional aspects of care work manifesting in early educator/caregiver lives in the time of the pandemic? Who is caring for the caregivers and what care may be needed? How can we re-imagine the care of ourselves, and in relation to an ethics of care for the other?

While women were already doing most of the world’s unpaid care work prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging research suggests that the crisis and its subsequent shutdown response have resulted in a dramatic increase in this burden. This policy brief builds on recent work on the care economy to explore implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and opportunities for addressing the burden of unpaid care work.

This technical note is intended to provide a simple checklist for policy-makers, partners and UNICEF staff as they engage in the design and implementation of COVD-19 related social protection interventions. It builds on the SPIAC-B Joint Statement on the role of social protection in responding to the pandemic, particularly the need for urgent action to prioritise the most vulnerable.