Children and COVID-19 Research Library

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, Pathfinder’s AmplifyPF program conducted a study across 17 urban and peri-urban districts in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, and Togo that assessed the influence of the crisis on family planning services. The study findings captured in this report show that family planning services were sustained at pre-pandemic levels. Governments took quick action to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, thereby keeping the levels of disruptions to delivery and use of essential health services below those anticipated. The study exhibits that maintaining continuity and use of family planning services during a pandemic is feasible when Ministries of Health act in collaboration with their partners to deliver an efficient, timely, and unified response that is accompanied by widespread, multichannel, supportive messaging.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led some governments to mandate the rapid return of children in residential care to families. Constrained timelines and limited support lead to wellbeing risks for children and families in this situation. The goal of the present study was to better stand the needs of the families, as perceived by the children and families themselves. This can inform targeted service provision. Participants were 131 families who had experienced government-mandated rapid return in five nations. Using a qualitative design, results examined child and family perception of needs.

This study investigates women’s likelihood of withdrawing from paid labor to care for children and help them with schoolwork as a result of COVID and school closures. Were women more likely to shift out of paid labor in states where property-division rules would better protect the financial interests of stay-at-home parents? Such higher protection is offered in states with community property regimes or with homemaking provisions, the alternative being equitable-division and no homemaking provisions. This research uses monthly data from the U.S. Current Population Survey and compare the labor force participation of women with children in grades K-6 between 2019 and 2020, before and after COVID started.