Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unemployment, school closures, movement restrictions, and social isolation, all of which are child abuse risk factors. This study aimed to estimate the effect of COVID-19 shelter in place (SIP) policies on child abuse as captured by Google searches. It applied a differences-in-differences design to estimate the effect of SIP on child abuse search volume. It linked state-level SIP policies to outcome data from the Google Health Trends Application Programming Interface.

Children are more likely to experience maltreatment and parental conflict in a pandemic context, which can exacerbate their vulnerability to psychological disorders. The purpose of the present study was to examine mental health symptoms in children aged 0 to 10 years and consider related factors from the perspectives of maltreatment and parental conflict during the COVID-19 lockdown. Participants were 1286 parents aged 18 years and over with children aged 0 to 10 years were included. Several multivariable linear regressions were used to analyze the data.

UNICEF and WHO jointly organized Ending Violence Against Children During COVID-19 and Beyond: Second Regional Conference to Strengthen Implementation of the INSPIRE Strategies, held virtually on 1–5 November 2021. The Conference comes under the umbrella of the 2021 Solutions Summit series of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children (GPEVAC).  Over 1700 delegates gathered for the Conference virtually, representing governments (including from the health, social welfare, education and justice sectors), youth groups, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), international NGOs, faith-based organizations and religious leaders, academic institutions, private sector and development partners, as well as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children. The purpose of the Conference was to identify actions needed to ensure effective prevention and response to VAC during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery, utilizing the strategies outlined in INSPIRE: Seven strategies for ending violence against children.

During the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety and depression were common among caregivers and parents more prone to adopt harsh disciplinary techniques when angry or stressed. The purpose of this study was to investigate if there are any differences in parents’ disciplinary strategies following social distancing efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online questionnaire was completed by a convenience sample of parents (N = 605) and mothers (n = 533; 88.1%) aged 37.80 years old (SD = 5.66; range = 20–59) who lived with children aged 6–12 years in Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic. Iran's Multiple Indicator Demographic and Health Survey questionnaire was used to gauge child discipline.

This paper tried to know the different forms of violence against children during the Corona pandemic in  Bangladesh  from 2020 to  mid-2021.  As  we have  already experienced  this  catastrophic and lives  losing  pandemic situation across the world wherein  the  people  of  Bangladesh  have  been  uniquely facing this  live  losing situation  since 2020.  World  Health  Organization  has  warned  people  to  adopt different  precautionary  measures  like  20-second hand washing, wearing  a  mask, maintaining  physical  and  social  distance,  isolation,  quarantine,  taking immediate treatment,  and  vaccination.  The real situation is that  many  countries  have  failed  to take  these measures and lost a huge  number  of  lives. In  spite  of  those  situations, many  developed  countries  have taken  precautionary  measures  to  prevent  mass transmission of the   Covid-19 virus.  But unfortunately,  many socio-economic problems  like  violence  against  children  and women have been  aroused during this pandemic situation while governments have given more concentration on Covid-19 prevention, e.g., isolation, quarantine, awareness of social   measures, and vaccination.

In recent times, humanity has experienced the devastating effects of the COVID-19 crisis, which has caused sharp ruptures in different spheres of social life. Detrimental effects of the almost unprecedented crisis have triggered an avalanche of research to explore the phenomenon in focus while conducting scientific investigation that matters. Despite the rapid influx of scholarly articles, recent literature has shown that there is still a remarkable lack of scholarly attention on disasters and their impact on children. While trying to contribute to and address the noted research gap, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that explores pathways to violence against children in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia with a focus on the national lockdown. The sample consisted of 63 randomly selected police files involving 65 suspects of criminal offences with elements of violence against 108 closely related children at the five police departments centred in Pula, Rijeka, Zagreb, Split and Osijek. In order to “capture” the violence that emerged during the lockdown and was reported after restrictive measures were lifted, a seven-month time frame (March–September, 2020) was implemented as an additional sampling parameter.

The objectives of this study are: (1) To describe the levels of parental stress, self-reported child verbal abuse and corporal punishment among caregivers, and; (2) To assess the extent that having moderate or higher levels of parental stress is associated with self-reported child verbal abuse and corporal punishment. We randomly sampled 12 villages and sampled 40 households per village in Thailand’s impoverished Deep South region in June 2020. Study participants included 466 caregivers residing in sampled households. Trained enumerators used the standard ST-5 questionnaire to measure stress level and asked the participants to self-report the study outcomes.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health ‘stay at home’ restrictions have intensified familial risk factors. Children would appear to be at increased risk of harm and abuse, yet administrative data from the early months of the pandemic showed falling cases of child maltreatment. Using weekly administrative data from Scotland, UK that span the first 17 months of the pandemic, this article found that child maltreatment activity levels fluctuated as ‘stay at home’ restrictions changed. During lockdown periods, the number of children subject to Inter-agency Referral Discussion fell but a higher number of children were placed on the Child Protection Register. When restrictions were eased, the number of Inter-agency Referral Discussions increased but the number of children placed on the Child Protection Register fell. To explain the fluctuations, the article asserts that the pandemic’s impact on services’ ability to engage directly with children and families has been critical, but the limitations of administrative data in providing an accurate measure of child maltreatment levels also need to be recognised.

This study examined the relationship between variables about family members co-residing during the COVID-19 pandemic and anxiety about COVID-19, domestic violence from spouse, child abuse anxiety, internet addiction, and mental health as social problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 220 parents (70 male and 150 female, age; M = 41.6, SD = 34.4) were included in the analysis. Stepwise hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted with dependent variables of fear of COVID-19, spousal violence, anxiety regarding perpetrating child abuse, internet addiction, and mental health. The independent variables were basic variables related to family members such as family composition.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak became a worldwide pandemic in 2020. Social distancing measures, such as self-quarantine, lockdowns, and school closures, which have proven efficacy in various pandemic situations, remain in use in Korea. These measures prevented viral transmission to some extent; however, adverse effects have also resulted. First, the negative effect of social isolation on mental health is evident. This influences the psychiatric milieu of parents and children directly and indirectly. The most stressful factor among Korean youth was the restriction of outdoor activities. Increasing parenting burden result in increased screen time among youth, and social isolation created depressive mood with symptoms similar to those of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety. Second, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and somatization are prevalent among children and adolescents. The sense of threatened health and life during the pandemic, one symptom of PTSD, is a strong risk factor for somatization. Finally, the increased pattern of child abuse in pandemic indicates increased levels of emotional/psychological abuse and nonmedical neglect. Social isolation makes people less aware of these events. Because pediatricians evaluate pediatric patients and their families, they should regularly assess emotional/stress factors, especially when somatization is prominent during the pandemic, and cautiously recommend that families seek advice from mental health professionals when warranted. Primary physicians must understand the characteristics and aspects of child abuse in the COVID-19 pandemic, make efforts to identify signs of child abuse, and deliver accurate information and preventive strategies for child abuse to caregivers, thereby functioning as a professional guardian. To promote the mental health of parents and children during the COVID-19 pandemic, more research and cooperation among health professionals, families, governments, and schools are needed in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created environments with increased risk factors for household violence, such as unemployment and financial uncertainty. At the same time, it led to the introduction of policies to mitigate financial uncertainty. Further, it hindered traditional measurements of household violence. Using an infoveillance approach, our goal was to determine if there were excess Google searches related to exposure to child abuse, intimate partner violence (IPV), and child-witnessed IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic and if any excesses are temporally related to shelter-in-place and economic policies.