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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

UNICEF Innocenti's curated library of COVID-19 + Children research

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Journal article

Parenting during the COVID-19 lockdown in Portugal: changes in daily routines, co-parenting relationships, emotional experiences, and support networks

AUTHOR(S)
Ana P. Antunes; Silvana Martins; Laura Magalhães (et al.)

Published: December 2021 Journal: Children

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged parental resources pertinent to coping with lockdowns. The main objective of this work was to study parenting during the COVID-19 lockdown. Specifically at focus were parental behaviors concerning key domains for the family (daily routine, co-parenting, emotional experience, and support network) and changes related to the pandemic and associated with the parents’ employment statuses. An online survey was carried out through an ad hoc questionnaire where participants completed questions about their sociodemographic data and rated how much their family routines, their co-parenting relationship, their emotional experiences, and the support available in the family network varied on a 5-point scale. The participants included 1384 parents, of which 286 responded to open questions regarding impactful experiences during the lockdown.

Cite this research | Vol.: 8 | Issue: 12 | No. of pages: 17 | Language: English | Topics: Education, Social Protection, Well-being and Equity | Tags: child well-being, COVID-19 response, family, family environment, lockdown, mental stress, parent-child relationship, parents, psychological distress, resiliency, social distance | Countries: Portugal

Journal article

Home Thrive ScaleTM: case management tool towards preventing family separation and ensuring children thrive in family-based and alternative care options

AUTHOR(S)
Audria Choudhury

Published: September 2021 Journal: Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond

Case management can be a complex process where multiple factors must be considered for the safety and well-being of a child in any care option. Miracle Foundation’s proprietary Home Thrive ScaleTM is a strengths-based assessment tool that makes it easier to identify strengths, risks and address areas of support within a family home over time. A home’s safety is measured based on five well-being domains—family and social relations, health and mental health, education, living conditions and household economy—with the child and family’s thoughts at the core. Intervention options are then offered to put assessments into action. The tool serves to both prevent family breakdowns and reintegrate children from institutions back into families (or other family-based or alternative care options). This study provides an overview of the tool, including its purpose, set-up and functionality within a case management system. The use of the tool is illustrated with the COVID-19 situation in India where masses of children were rapidly placed from institutions back into families without preparation.

Cite this research | Open access | Language: English | Topics: Health, Mental Health | Tags: child care services, child well-being, COVID-19 response, family, institutional care, institutionalized children, lockdown, social distance

Journal article

Adrenocortical and psychosocial responses of families in Jordan to the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Paul D. Hastings; Lindsey C. Partington; Rana Dajani (et al.)

Published: September 2021 Journal: Child Development

This study of 52 predominantly lower income Jordanian and Syrian families with young children (31 girls; Mage = 53.37 months, SD = 3.53) in Jordan began in 2019, before the pandemic. Families were followed to explore stress physiology, family functioning, and mental health over the first 9 months of the pandemic. Mothers reported less adaptive coping and more negative changes to family life in June 2020 when their children had poorer behavioral self-regulation and more behavior problems, and when families had lower income, in 2019. More negative changes to family life predicted greater hair cortisol concentrations in children in June 2020, and more negative changes and less adaptive coping predicted worse child and mother psychosocial adjustment in December 2020.

Journal article

COVID-19 impact on parental emotion socialization and youth socioemotional adjustment in Italy

AUTHOR(S)
Laura Di Giunta; Carolina Lunetti; Irene Fiasconaro (et al.)

Published: August 2021 Journal: Journal of Research on Adolescence

This study examines the change and associations in parental emotion socialization strategies in response to children’s negative emotions and youths’ adjustment, comparing before the Covid-19 pandemic hit Italy and since the pandemic began. Participants were convenient cross-sectional/normative (Study 1) and clinical/longitudinal (Study 2) samples of Italian parents whose children were in middle childhood and adolescence. In Study 1, self-reported socialization strategies, youths’ maladjustment, and emotion dysregulation increased since the pandemic began. Whereas, in Study 2, socialization strategies and youths’ maladjustment decreased since the pandemic started. In both studies, unsupportive parental emotion socialization predicted youths’ maladjustment and emotion dysregulation, while supportive parental emotion socialization predicted adaptive emotion regulation. This study advances knowledge about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the family context.

Cite this research | No. of pages: 21 | Language: English | Topics: Mental Health | Tags: adolescent psychology, adolescent well-being, child mental health, COVID-19 response, family, lockdown, parent-child relationship, parents, social distance | Countries: Italy

Journal article

Maternal factors associated with family social distancing practices during the Coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Christine A. Limbers; Emma Summers

Published: August 2021 Journal: Maternal and Child Health Journal

Despite social distancing being an effective method for mitigating community transmission of viruses, little is known about factors associated with social distancing practices among children and their families. The current study assessed maternal socio-demographic characteristics and political party identifications associated with family social distancing practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants in this study were 1266 mothers (mean age = 39.92 years; 84.9% white) of children ages 17 years and younger from across the United States. They were recruited online through social media platforms and completed questionnaires on Qualtrics about their family’s social distancing practices and socio-demographic characteristics.

Cite this research | Open access | No. of pages: 8 | Language: English | Topics: Health, Mental Health | Tags: COVID-19 response, family, lockdown, maternal and child health, mental health services, mental stress, parent-child relationship, psychological distress, social distance | Countries: United States

Journal article

Family adjustment to COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: parental stress, coparenting, and child externalizing behavior

AUTHOR(S)
Michele Giannotti; Noemi Mazzoni; Arianna Bentenuto (et al.)

Published: July 2021 Journal: Family Process

Evidence of psychological distress in families during COVID-19 outbreak are arising. However, the perceived changes in psychological adjustment during home confinement with respect to the period before the pandemic have not been addressed yet. Moreover, little is known about the role of coparenting and specific COVID-19 contextual variables on parental stress and children's behavioral difficulties in the Italian context. Using a cross-sectional survey, this study collected data on 841 Italian parents of children aged 3–11 years with typical development during the home confinement (20th April–18th May). It analyzed levels of parental stress, coparenting, and child externalizing behaviors before and during the home confinement. Additionally, hierarchical regressions were performed to investigate predictors of parental stress and child externalizing behaviors during the lockdown.

Research Report

Fathers matter: intrahousehold responsibilities and children's wellbeing during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy

AUTHOR(S)
Lucia Mangiavacchi; Luca Piccoli; Luca Pieroni

Published: May 2021 Journal: Economics & Human Biology

The lockdown imposed during the spring of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic upset families lives, in addition to the health consequences of the virus, forcing parents to completely reorganize their labor, domestic work and childcare time. At the same time, school closures forced children to rearrange their lives and learning processes: in Italy, schools and nurseries were closed for four months, and the incidence and quality of distance learning activities was heterogeneous across education levels and among schools. Using real-time survey data on families with under-16 children collected in April 2020, which include information on parents’ market and household work, and their perception of their children's wellbeing, we estimate how the lockdown has affected children's use of time, their emotional status and their home learning, and whether the reallocation of intrahousehold responsibilities during the lockdown played a role in this process. Changes in the parental division of household tasks and childcare, mostly induced by the labor market restrictions imposed during the lockdown, point to a greater involvement of fathers in childcare and homeschooling activities. This positive variation in fathers’ involvement is accompanied by an increase in children's emotional wellbeing and by a reduction in TV and passive screen time. On the other hand, the quality of children's home learning does not appear to depend on which parent is overseeing their work, but rather on the type of distance learning activities proposed by their teachers.

Journal article

Household SARS-CoV-2 transmission and children: a network prospective study

AUTHOR(S)
Antoni Soriano-Arandes; Anna Gatell; Pepe Serrano (et al.)

Published: March 2021 Journal: Clinical Infectious Diseases

The role of children in household transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains uncertain. Here, we describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of children with COVID-19 in Catalonia (Spain) and investigate the dynamics of household transmission. Prospective, observational, multicenter study performed during summer and school periods (1 July31 October, 2020), in which epidemiological and clinical features, and viral transmission dynamics were analyzed in COVID-19 patients <16 years. A pediatric index case was established when a child was the first individual infected within a household. Secondary cases were defined when another household member tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 before the child. The secondary attack rate (SAR) was calculated, and logistic regression was used to assess associations between transmission risk factors and SARS-CoV-2 infections.

Journal article

Parental well-being in times of Covid-19 in Germany

AUTHOR(S)
Mathias Huebener; Sevrin Waights; C. Katharina Spiess (et al.)

Published: January 2021 Journal: Review of Economics of the Household

This study examines the effects of Covid-19 and related restrictions on individuals with dependent children in Germany. It specifically focuses on the role of day care center and school closures, which may be regarded as a “disruptive exogenous shock” to family life. It makes use of a novel representative survey of parental well-being collected in May and June 2020 in Germany, when schools and day care centers were closed but while other measures had been relaxed and new infections were low. In this descriptive analysis, well-being during this period with a pre-crisis period for different groups is compared.

Cite this research | Open access | No. of pages: 32 | Language: English | Topics: Health, Social Protection, Well-being and Equity | Tags: child care services, COVID-19 response, family, gender equality, gender roles, lockdown, parent-child relationship, school attendance, social inequality | Countries: Germany

Journal article

How does COVID-19 impact intrafamilial child sexual abuse? Comparison analysis of reports by practitioners in Israel and the US

AUTHOR(S)
Dafna Tener; Amitai Marmor; Carmit Katz (et al.)

Published: October 2020 Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect

There is consensus in child sexual abuse (CSA) literature that intrafamilial child sexual abuse (IFCSA) has a tremendous impact on children and families while simultaneously creating challenges for practitioners. COVID-19 impacted countries worldwide and generated a global crisis resulting in impacts on daily life, however, it’s effect on IFCSA is unknown. This study aimed to compare professional perspectives and experiences working with IFCSA with respect to the context of the COVID-19 pandemic within the United States and Israel.

Evidence Synthesis and other Reviews

Child and family outcomes following pandemics: a systematic review and recommendations on COVID-19 policies

AUTHOR(S)
Vanessa C. Fong; Grace Iarocci

Published: October 2020 Journal: Journal of Pediatric Psychology

A systematic review of mental health outcomes and needs of children and families during past pandemics was conducted based on the PRISMA protocol. The objectives were to evaluate the quality of existing studies on this topic, determine what is known about mental health outcomes and needs of children and families, and provide recommendations for how COVID-19 policies can best support children and families.

Journal article

How has COVID-19 changed family life and well-being in Korea?

AUTHOR(S)
Jaerim Lee; Meejung Chin; Miai Sung

Published: August 2020 Journal: Journal of Comparative Family Studies

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss how COVID-19 has impacted Korean families. The economic well-being of Korean families has been threatened because many family members lost their jobs or earned reduced incomes due to the pandemic. COVID-19 substantially changed the work environment and has provided the momentum for the growth of flexible work including telecommuting in Korea, which was not commonly used before the pandemic. However, the work-from-home arrangements created an ambiguous boundary between work and family, particularly among employed mothers because childcare facilities and schools were closed during COVID-19. The postponed 2020 school year started with online schooling in April, and children in secondary schools often continued private education during the pandemic. Although COVID-19 provided an opportunity to build emotional ties for some families, many Korean families who were stuck at home experienced relational difficulties. Socioeconomic and gender inequality along with discrimination against certain groups were heightened.

Journal article

Managing psychological distress in children and adolescents following the COVID-19 epidemic: a cooperative approach

AUTHOR(S)
Xiao Zhou

Published: August 2020 Journal: Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy

Children and adolescents are susceptible to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic and tend to show posttraumatic distress. Immediately after an epidemic, governments and social organizations often provide psychological services for children and adolescents to relieve their distress. However, many adolescents report distress even long after a traumatic event because of the unaddressed traumatic atmosphere in schools or families. To advance this issue, this article proposes a cooperative model of psychological services provision for children and adolescents in response to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Children and adolescents are susceptible to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic and tend

to show posttraumatic distress. Immediately after an epidemic, governments and social organizations

often provide psychological services for children and adolescents to relieve their distress. However, many

adolescents report distress even long after a traumatic event because of the unaddressed traumatic

atmosphere in schools or families. To advance this issue, this article proposes a cooperative model of

psychological services provision for children and adolescents in response to the COVID-19 epidemic

Children and adolescents are susceptible to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic and tend

to show posttraumatic distress. Immediately after an epidemic, governments and social organizations

often provide psychological services for children and adolescents to relieve their distress. However, many

adolescents report distress even long after a traumatic event because of the unaddressed traumatic

atmosphere in schools or families. To advance this issue, this article proposes a cooperative model of

psychological services provision for children and adolescents in response to the COVID-19 epidemic

Worlds of Influence: Understanding What Shapes Child Well-being in Rich Countries

AUTHOR(S)
Anna Gromada; Gwyther Rees; Yekaterina Chzhen

Institution: UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti
Published: August 2020 UNICEF Innocenti Publication

A new look at children from the world’s richest countries offers a mixed picture of their health, skills and happiness. For far too many, issues such as poverty, exclusion and pollution threaten their mental well-being, physical health and opportunities to develop skills. Even countries with good social, economic and environmental conditions are a long way from meeting the targets set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Focused and accelerated action is needed if these goals are to be met.

The evidence from 41 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU) countries tells its own story: from children’s chances of survival, growth and protection, to whether they are learning and feel listened to, to whether their parents have the support and resources to give their children the best chance for a healthy, happy childhood. This report reveals children’s experiences against the backdrop of their country’s policies and social, educational, economic and environmental contexts.

Cite this research | No. of pages: 64 | Language: English | Topics: Health, Social Policies, Child well-being | Tags: child mental health, child poverty, child well-being, environmental health, family, high-income countries, mental health, obesity, oecd, oecd countries, policy making, suicide | Publisher: UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti

Journal article

Family violence and COVID‐19: Increased vulnerability and reduced options for support

AUTHOR(S)
Kim Usher; Navjot Bhullar; Joanne Durkin (et al.)

Published: April 2020 Journal: International Journal of Mental Health Nursing

The fear and uncertainty associated with pandemics provide an enabling environment that may exacerbate or spark diverse forms of violence. Actions such as social distancing, sheltering in place, restricted travel, and closures of key community resources are likely to dramatically increase the risk of family violence. Governments and policymakers must create awareness about an increased risk of violence during pandemics and highlight the need for people to keep in touch with each other (while observing precautionary measures) and the great importance of reporting any concerns of abuse. It is important to remember that maintaining social connectedness is an important strategy during times of isolation, even more so with family or friends you suspect may be at risk of family violence. In addition, information about services available locally (e.g. hotlines, tele‐health, respite services, shelters, rape crisis centres, and counselling) must be made known to the general public through a range of sources, including social media, the mainstream media, and health facilities. Mental health professionals can support people by providing first‐line psychological support, including listening empathetically and without judgment, enquiring about needs and concerns, validating peoples’ experiences and feelings, enhancing safety, and connecting people to relevant support services.

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UNICEF Innocenti's Children and COVID-19 Library is a database collecting research from around the world on COVID-19 and its impacts on children and adolescents.

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The first digest covers children and youth mental health under COVID-19.

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