Logo UNICEF Innocenti
Office of Research-Innocenti
menu icon

Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

RESULTS:   177     SORT BY:

ADVANCED SEARCH:

Select one or more filter options and click search below.

PUBLICATION DATE:
UNICEF Innocenti Publication
UNICEF Publication
Open Access
JOURNAL ACCESS FOR UNICEF STAFF CONTACT US
121 - 135 of 177
Family well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: gender differences and solidarity networks of care

AUTHOR(S)
Nadia Rania; Ilaria Coppola; Francesca Lagomarsino (et al.)

Published: January 2022   Journal: Child & Family Social Work
During the COVID-19 pandemic, families experienced new challenges related to reorganizing living spaces and the need to renegotiate domestic and care roles. This paper aims to understand how Italian families have reacted to this situation with respect to psychological well-being, the management of domestic and care activities and solidarity networks of care. The participants were 560 Italian subjects who reported having a parental role. The protocol included a measure of well-being (the General Health Questionnaire-12) and some questions related to the time dedicated to domestic activities or to caring for people, the perception of conflict within the family and solidarity networks of care.
Family functioning and mental wellbeing impairment during initial quarantining for the COVID-19 pandemic: a study of Canadian families

AUTHOR(S)
Philippe Hwang; Lara Ipekian; Nikhil Jaiswal (et al.)

Published: January 2022   Journal: Current Psychology
Quarantine measures imposed due to COVID-19 have negatively impacted individual wellbeing. However, the research on the factors impacting mental health and functioning of families is limited. The current study explores socio-economic and demographic factors that mediate poor family functioning, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in response to quarantine measures in Canadian parents and children. 254 Canadian families completed an online questionnaire capturing demographic information and mental wellbeing of individuals and of the whole family. Family functioning was assessed using the Family Assessment Device General Functioning subscale (FAD-GF), and individual mental wellbeing was measured with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder screener (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Generalized linear models and logistic regression were used to model socio-demographic impacts on outcome variables.
Home environment and social skills of Japanese preschool children pre- and post-COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Xiang Li; Dandan Jiao; Munenori Matsumoto (et al.)

Published: January 2022   Journal: Early Child Development and Care
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the daily life and social relationships of pre-school children globally. While many studies have examined the impact of the pandemic on children, few have compared the home environment and children’s social skills before and after the pandemic. To address this research gap, this study used data from the Japan Child Care Cohort study, which included questions on home environment answered by parents (1748 in 2019 and 1349 in 2020) of children aged 0–6 years using self-reported questionnaires and data on the social skills of children aged 1–6 years (1917 in 2019 and 1989 in 2020) that were evaluated by childcare professionals in childcare centres. Using the Chi-square test, home environments and social skills were compared.
Difficulties imposed on the parent–child relationship due to the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Iraklis Grigoropoulos

Published: December 2021   Journal: Journal of Family Issues
The present study tested whether emotionally burdened parents due to the COVID-19 pandemic might appraise their relationship with their children more negatively. The current cross-sectional study was circulated through social media. A total of 265 respondents took part in the study. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the association between predictor variables and the parent–child relationship. This study’s results report that older fathers with higher levels of COVID-19 related fear are more likely to appraise negatively their relationship with their children. Therefore, this study suggests the need for familylevel strategies to address better the psychological aspects related to the pandemic outbreak.
Positive family environment, general distress, subjective well-being, and academic engagement among high school students before and during the COVID-19 outbreak

AUTHOR(S)
José Concepción Gaxiola Romero; Antonio Pineda Domínguez; Eunice Gaxiola Villa (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: School Psychology International
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the family dynamics of most people worldwide as well as the mode in which students take classes. The impact of such changes on students’ well-being, academic engagement, and general distress remains unknown. Therefore, this study aims to test the structural relations among positive family environment (a measure of Positive Home-Based Parent Involvement [HBI]), subjective well-being (SWB), general distress, and academic engagement, focusing on Mexican high school students. A longitudinal study was conducted covering two time points: before (T1) and during (T2) the COVID-19 outbreak. A sample of 502 students answered questionnaires in T1 whereas 111 did so in T2. Analyses were conducted using Mplus software.
Building long-term family resilience through universal prevention: 10-year parent and child outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Mark E. Feinberg; Lindsey Gedaly; Jacqueline Mogle (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: Family Process
As the COVID-19 pandemic has been highly stressful for parents and children, it is clear that strategies that promote long-term family resilience are needed to protect families in future crises. One such strategy, the Family Foundations program, is focused on promoting supportive coparenting at the transition to parenthood. In a randomized trial, we tested the long-term intervention effects of Family Foundations on parent, child, and family well-being one to two months after the imposition of a national shelter-in-place public health intervention in 2020. This study used regression models to test intervention impact on outcomes reported on by parents in a standard questionnaire format and a series of 8 days of daily reports. It also tested moderation of intervention impact by parent depression and coparenting relationship quality.
Families playing animal crossing together: coping with video games during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Katy E. Pearce; Jason C. Yip; Jin Ha Lee (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: Games and Culture
The COVID-19 pandemic was stressful for everyone, particularly for families who had to supervise and support children, facilitate remote schooling, and manage work and home life. We consider how families coped with pandemic-related stress using the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Combining a family coping framework with theorizing about media as a coping tool, this interview study of 27 families (33 parents and 37 children) found that parents and children individual coped with pandemic-related stress with media. Parents engaged in protective buffering of their children with media, taking on individual responsibility to cope with a collective problem. Families engaged in communal coping, whereby media helped the family cope with a collective problem, taking on shared ownership and responsibility. We provide evidence for video games as coping tools, but with the novel consideration of family coping with media.
Family resilience, media exposure, and children's mental health in China during COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Yaliu He; Xiaohui Sophie Li; Jiaqi Zhao (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: The Family Journal
This study aims to describe children's mental health conditions in the time of COVID-19 and its associations with the risk factor (media exposure) and the protective factor (family resilience) during COVID-19. The study took place from February 13th to February 29th, 2020, at the peak of the outbreak all across China. In total 441 children (M  =  11.83 years old, SD  =  0.79) from Jiangxi province, China, filled out online surveys. The results showed that children's rates of depression were relatively high and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rates were low. Based on the results of multiple linear regression analyses, family resilience was negatively associated with children's mental health issues including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and poor sleep quality counting the effects of children's age, gender, and media exposure. Children's media exposure to COVID-related news reports did not significantly contribute to the total variance of children's mental health symptoms.
Inter-parental conflict’s persistent effects on adolescent psychological distress, adjustment issues, and suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 lockdown

AUTHOR(S)
Iqra Mushtaque; Muhammad Rizwan; Mazhar Abbas (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying
The current study sought to ascertain the impact of inter-parent conflicts on teenage psychological distress, social and academic adjustment and examine the suicide ideation during the COVID-19. The results found to be alarming as 22% of the individuals displayed suicidal tendencies, with 9% having attempted suicide once, 4.6% having tried suicide twice, and 11% stating that they were likely to do so again. Therefore, the media and the government might host awareness programs and counseling initiatives to promote mental health and prevent suicidal behavior. Moreover, parents may be educated on community level, about the effect of inter-parental arguments on the mental health of their children.
Perceived impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the family context of foster and non-foster families

AUTHOR(S)
Lucía González-Pasarín; Antonio Urbano-Contreras; Isabel M. Bernedo (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: Journal of Child and Family Studies
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown have had a far-reaching impact across all levels of society. In Spain, severe restrictions were placed on people’s mobility, and leaving the home was only possible under special circumstances. This study analyzes the impact of lockdown on the family context of foster and non-foster families, focusing particularly on their levels of cohesion, adaptability, and perceived stress. It also examines a series of variables that may have influenced foster families’ perceptions of their family context during lockdown. Data were gathered through an online survey that was completed by 347 individuals corresponding to 100 foster families and 247 non-foster families from different regions of Spain. Analyses were descriptive and exploratory in nature.
Coronavirus changed the rules on everything”: parent perspectives on how the COVID-19 Pandemic Influenced family routines, relationships and technology use in families with infants

AUTHOR(S)
Rebecca Hood; Juliana Zabatiero; Desiree Silva (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
This study explores how the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced family routines, relationships and technology use (smartphones and tablet computers) among families with infants. Infancy is known to be an important period for attachment security and future child development, and a time of being susceptible to changes within and outside of the family unit. A qualitative design using convenience sampling was employed. A total of 30 mothers in Perth, Western Australia participated in semi-structured interviews by audio or video call. All mothers were parents of infants aged 9 to 15 months old. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, and data were analysed using thematic analysis to code and identify themes in an inductive manner.
Material hardship among custodial grandparents in COVID-19 and its associations with grandchildren’s physical and mental health: a latent class analysis

AUTHOR(S)
Yanfeng Xu; Qianwei Zhao; Brittany R. Schuler (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: Children and Youth Services Review
COVID-19 has increased economic hardship for many families, including custodial grandparent-headed families. This studied aimed to examine latent classes of material hardship among custodial grandparent-headed families, to assess predictors associated with identified classes, and to investigate associations with grandchildren’s physical and mental health outcomes during COVID-19. A cross-sectional survey was administered via Qualtrics Panels in June 2020. The sample comprised of 362 grandparents. Latent class analysis and multinomial and binary logistic regression were conducted. Three latent classes of material hardship were identified: Class 1 low overall hardship with high medical hardship, class 2 moderate overall hardship with high utility hardship, and class 3 severe overall hardship. Factors, including race, household income, labor force status, years of care, and financial assistance status, were associated with class membership. Class 2 was significantly associated with grandchildren’s physical health.
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.
Changes to the home food environment and parent feeding practices during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative exploration

AUTHOR(S)
Amanda Trofholz; Derek Hersch; Kristin Norderud (et al.)

Published: November 2021   Journal: Appetite
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about many changes that potentially altered the home food environment, which has been associated with child eating patterns and dietary intake. There is also some evidence that changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with health behaviors in children, such as an increased intake of high-calorie snack food. The current study aimed to more deeply understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the home food environment of meal and snack time routines and parent feeding practices within families of young children. Data for this study are taken from the Kids EAT! Study, a racially/ethnically diverse cohort of families with 2–5 year old children. Qualitative interviews were conducted by phone and video conference with mothers (n = 25) during August/September 2020 and were coded using a hybrid deductive/inductive analysis approach.
Hardships & resilience: families in a pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Erica Kanewischer; Claire Mueller; Mia Pylkkanen

Published: November 2021   Journal: The Family Journal
The COVID-19 pandemic created unique hardships for families with school-aged children. To better understand these hardships, this question was asked: How did family units of various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds experience the pandemic? Qualitative phenomenology was the methodological basis for this study, and the Double ABC-X Model of Family Behavior was applied to analyze how the pandemic and racial tensions that occurred in the past 18 months affected families. This study specifically focused on including the voices of minoritized populations as they are less often represented in phenomenological research. Semi-structured virtual interviews were conducted with families from Minnesota and Illinois. NViVo was used to code and analyze the interviews. Five themes were identified which demonstrated family strength and experience of hardship: resilience, boundaries, community support, fear, and communication.
121 - 135 of 177

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.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DATABASE

Subscribe to updates on new research about COVID-19 & children

SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Share:

facebook twitter linkedin google+ reddit print email
Article Article

Check our quarterly thematic digests on children and COVID-19

Each quarterly thematic digest features the latest evidence drawn from the Children and COVID-19 Research Library on a particular topic of interest.
Campaign Campaign

COVID-19 & Children: Rapid Research Response

UNICEF Innocenti is mobilizing a rapid research response in line with UNICEF’s global response to the COVID-19 crisis. The initiatives we’ve begun will provide the broad range of evidence needed to inform our work to scale up rapid assessment, develop urgent mitigating strategies in programming and advocacy, and preparation of interventions to respond to the medium and longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. The research projects cover a rapid review of evidence, education analysis, and social and economic policies.