Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of mindfulness practices on high school band students. This action research project took place in spring 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders. Four students enrolled in the high school band participated in five weeks of mindfulness practice interventions over the virtual format alongside their instrumental music director. Mindfulness practices included diaphragmatic breathing, relaxation imagery, cued relaxation, and stretching. Throughout the five weeks, student participants discussed improved focus, improvement of stress management, and increased frequency of mindfulness practice. However, four months after data collection was complete, three of the four student participants continued to practice mindfulness techniques on their own time to assist with nervousness, anxiety, and stress.

There has been great concern about the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related school lockdown on adolescent health. The aim of the present study was to compare sleep patterns before and during COVID-19-related school lockdown, in a large sample of high school students. The present study is based a prospective, longitudinal survey on adolescent sleep health. Phase 1 was conducted in 2019, whereas phase 2 was conducted in 2020 (response rate 60.2%), during the last 10 days of a 60-day long school lockdown. Main outcomes comprised sleep parameters from the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ). A total of 2,022 students provided valid responses to MCTQ in both survey phases.

This article investigates the situation of Swedish upper secondary school students who have been subject to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. It understands the transition from onsite education to distance education as a recontextualization of pedagogical practice, its framing follows loosely concepts from Bernstein. Given that the field of upper secondary education is highly socially structured it is relevant to enquire into the social dimensions of distance education. For this purpose, the study analysed answers to an open-ended question in a survey answered by 3,726 students, and related them to a cluster analysis distinguishing three main clusters of students: urban upper-middle-class, immigrant working-class, and rural working-class.

Educational disruption due to COVID-19 ushered in dramatically different learning realities in Ireland. This research explored the experiences of children, young people and parents during the first period of ‘schooling at home’ (SAH) at the end of that academic year. An anonymous online survey, guided by social constructivist emphases, yielded responses from 2733 parents and 1189 students from primary and second-level schools. Substantial evidence emerged of parent-perceived and student-perceived negative psychosocial impacts of SAH on students.

As the UK reopened after the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, crucial questions emerged around the role for ongoing interventions, including test-trace-isolate (TTI) strategies and mandatory masks. This study assessed the importance of masks in secondary schools by evaluating their impact over September 1–October 23, 2020. It showed that, assuming TTI levels from August 2020 and no fundamental changes in the virus’s transmissibility, adoption of masks in secondary schools would have reduced the predicted size of a second wave, but preventing it would have required 68% or 46% of those with symptoms to seek testing (assuming masks’ effective coverage 15% or 30% respectively). With masks in community settings but not secondary schools, the required testing rates increase to 76% and 57%.