Children and COVID-19 Research Library

COVID-19 has imposed unprecedented challenges to society. As the pandemic evolves, the social distancing measures that have been globally enforced, while essential, are having undesirable socioeconomic side effects particularly among vulnerable populations. In Mexico, families who depend upon informal employment face increased threats to their wellbeing, and households who in addition have young children may face long-term consequences. The Mexican government has not yet taken actions, but a coalition of non-governmental organizations is advocating in partnership with academic institutions for social protection actions such as a cash transfer and basic services subsidies for families with young children, subsisting from the informal sector economy. To facilitate governmental action, we estimated the costs for implementation of these recommendations. The methodology used could be replicated in other countries facing similar challenges.

Nearly half the national school student population is at risk of having their learning and wellbeingsignificantly compromised by not being at school because they are in a vulnerable group, due to their young age; social disadvantage; specific needs; or family employment context. As soon as health restrictions permit there is an urgent need to reconnect these students to the physical context of school-based learning to support their learning and wellbeing outcomes. Concurrently there is a need to invest rapidly in developing significant capability in schools to deliver education both online and on-site

Home quarantine may lead to families developing a variety of psychological distress. The purpose of this research is to examine the psychological status and well-being of children and their parents during 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Spain. It aims to offer testimonies and reflections of the confinement period along with its living conditions, emotional mapping and an analysis of the effects that confinement is generating on boys and girls.

This report presents the results of a survey that aims to (1) determine the most common difficulties Hong Kong children face with remote learning during school suspension and how students think they could overcome them; (2) get children’s perspectives on their well-being during the school suspension and the things that affect it most; (3) get children’s perspectives on what support they need for and their feelings about their return to school.

Physical distancing caused by COVID-19 has had a significant impact on daily life throughout the world. In this sense, Cuba is no exception. Children are a vulnerable population due to the characteristics of their subjective development. The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF, 2020a) has warned that children and families across the globe will suffer the consequences of the economic destruction caused by the pandemic. UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore has said this situation is generating a world economic crisis and in order to protect childhood during the COVID-19 crisis, international collaboration would be essential, since 99% of children and young people under 18 are currently living with movement restrictions (UNICEF, 2020a). Cuba has joined the call by the United Nations Secretary General to ensure and prioritize education, health and safety for all children and adolescents during this pandemic (UNICEF, 2020b), and expresses concern about the consequences this situation has and will have for the well-being of the youngest ones.

Discussions around the effects of the COVID-19 crisis and its impacts and costs are moving swiftly from health concerns to economic and social concerns. The ways in which countries are dealing with COVID-19 itself, through social lockdowns and school closures, are expected to have wide-ranging social and economic costs and governments have responded with rapid implementation of fiscal stimulus and social protection reforms.

COVID-19 is a global health crisis, with severe economic consequences, impacting countries and continents in waves, and therefore is – with the exception of the Spanish Flu in 1918 – without a recent comparator. Necessarily this means that experience with, and evidence for, dealing with such a crisis is limited.

Acknowledging that health, economic, and social crises can rapidly become a crisis for children, this paper seeks to contribute evidence to understanding what the crisis means for children and for families with children in the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In particular, what governments and stakeholders should be looking for when seeking to protect children from the worst outcomes of the crisis. In doing so, this paper asks: Through which mechanisms can COVID-19 affect children in the region? What can we learn from previous crises about the potential effects on children and those who care for children? How is vulnerability to poverty and child well-being likely to be affected? Are initial government responses to the crisis likely to worsen or mitigate risks to children’s well-being? And how might future public policies be optimized in the short and medium term to protect child outcomes?