Children and COVID-19 Research Library

This report explores how social network analysis (SNA) could shed light on educational shifts, such as the switch to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, and presents findings from pilot SNA studies of distance education for refugees in Jordan and Uganda. SNA measures how actors are connected within a network. It illuminates how the structure of or an actor’s positionality within a network affects social outcomes (Folke, 2006; Light & Moody, 2020), in this case the provision of distance education for refugees. Traditionally, the provision of education has been viewed as the output of a static system governed by hierarchical relationships. However, it is increasingly understood as a complex and dynamic ecosystem in which influence, resources, and ideas enter at different points and travel along diverse pathways. The pilot studies conducted in Jordan and Uganda explored what facilitated and what inhibited distance education for refugees in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular attention given to the network of relationships among distance education policy, content development and curation, teacher preparation, and delivery actors. Data was collected from individuals who worked for organizations that delivered, or supported the delivery of, distance education for refugees in Uganda and Jordan in 2021.

Social media use was previously characterized as both a maladaptive coping mechanism, and a source of engagement with peers, suggesting an ambivalent effect. The present study explored how adolescents might use social media as a coping mechanism during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a multidimensional perspective on well-being. Its sample consisted of 259 Romanian teenagers aged 11–16 (M = 13.38, SD = 0.93, 57% males). It investigated the potential indirect effect of social media use, i.e., its cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions on the relationship between depressive symptoms and adolescents' well-being.

Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to increased screen-viewing among children, especially during strict periods of lockdown. However, the extent to which screen-viewing patterns in UK school children have changed post lockdowns is unclear. The aim of this paper is to examine how screen-viewing changed in 10–11-year-old children over the 2020–21 COVID-19 pandemic, how this compares to before the pandemic, and the influences on screen-viewing behaviour. This is a mixed methods study with 10–11-year-olds from 50 schools in the Greater Bristol area, UK. Cross-sectional questionnaire data on minutes of weekday and weekend television (TV) viewing and total leisure screen-viewing were collected pre-COVID-19 in 2017–18 (N = 1,296) and again post-lockdowns in 2021 (N = 393). Data were modelled using Poisson mixed models, adjusted for age, gender, household education and seasonality, with interactions by gender and household education. Qualitative data were drawn from six focus groups (47 children) and 21 one-to-one parent interviews that explored screen-viewing behaviour during the pandemic and analysed using the framework method.

Although mobile technologies are a fundamental part of daily life, several studies have shown increased use of electronic devices, TV, and gaming during childhood in conjunction with the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus affected almost every country, causing uncertainty about the future, social isolation, and distress. This narrative review has searched the scientific literature in the field focusing on children. A non-systematic literature review was conducted in May 2022. Various databases were employed to conduct the document research for this paper, such as “Google Scholar”, “PubMed”, “Web of Science”. Keywords for the search included “screen time”, “media”, “digital use”, “social media”, “COVID-19”, “pandemic”, “lockdown”, “children”, “effect of media on children during COVID”. It was found that both children and adolescents seem to have used technologies to confront struggles provoked by COVID-19, such as the onset or exacerbation of symptoms of anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. However, moreover, other studies have suggested that increased media use can have positive effects on children depending on usage and monitoring by the parents.

This study focuses on a realistic picture of parental intervention in the use of social media among teenagers in the post-pandemic era. First, based on a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews, and under the guidance of the concept of interactive literacy improvement, we propose a conceptual model and a verifiable measurement dimension of parental-mediated intervention. Second, based on the comparison of parent–child samples, it was found that parental-mediated intervention strategies are often used in families, and parents and children have roughly the same cognition and preference for the four intervention strategies. However, parents reported that they use intervention strategies much more frequently than perceived by their children. Third, we constructed and verified the prediction model of “individual technical characteristics-online family environment-parental-mediated intervention,” namely, the hierarchical progressive logic of parental-mediated intervention, and realized the systematization of influencing factors.

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between Instagram, alcohol consumption and the impact on adolescent health during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative study was carried out with 13 focus groups, involving 38 interviews. The fieldwork was conducted between January and December 2021 using a semi-structured script with three main categories. The research was carried out by a team specialized in adolescent risks and qualitative research.

This paper includes a mixed methods content analysis of a parenting Facebook group focused on COVID-19. It analyze participants' posts to identify the types of support parents sought and gave. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased parental stress and challenges related to children's development. Many families turned to social media as a source of information and social support. This study analyzed 1,180 posts from a large, closed Facebook group focused on parenting during COVID-19. It coded posts using a modified version of social support theory and supplemented this analysis with codes related to giving and receiving support, post format, and topic.

Social media use among children and adolescents has increased significantly especially when COVID-19 struck. Social media have appearance-related content that include images of which encourage appearance comparisons. Research suggests that media use among adolescents can affect their body image. This study aimed to identify the sociodemographic background among adolescents, the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on social media usage and body image and the association between social media usage and body image among adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang.

This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic school closures on peer victimization in Mexico and Russia. In addition to effects on academic performance and attendance, the lockdowns interfered with usual peer socialization experiences and interactions. We examined the effects on the problem of bullying victimization. Since all measures were originally in English, factorial invariance was established at the outset. Comparisons by country for frequency of victimization, type of victimization, harmfulness of the victimization experiences, location of the victimization, and relationships to the perpetrator, were calculated.

Studies in recent years and especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown a significant increase in the problematic use of computer games and social media. Adolescents having difficulties in regulating their unpleasant emotions are especially prone to Problematic Internet Use (PIU), which is why emotion dysregulation has been considered a risk factor for PIU. The aim of the present study was to assess problematic internet use (PIU) in adolescents after the third wave (nearly 1.5 years after the onset in Europe) of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the German region of Siegen-Wittgenstein, all students 12 years and older from secondary-level schools, vocational schools and universities were offered a prioritized vaccination in August 2021 with an approved vaccine against COVID-19. In this context, the participants filled out the Short Compulsive Internet Use Scale (SCIUS) and two additional items to capture a possible change in digital media usage time and regulation of negative affect due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A multiple regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of PIU. The original sample consisted of 1477 participants, and after excluding invalid cases the final sample size amounted to 1268 adolescents aged 12–17 (x = 14.37 years, SD = 1.64). The average prevalence of PIU was 43.69%. Gender, age, digital media usage time and the intensity of negative emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic were all found to be significant predictors of PIU: female gender, increasing age, longer digital media usage time and higher intensity of negative emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with higher SCIUS total scores.

Today, the increasing process with the using internet is a kind of disease among adolescents, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic. The activities such as learning–educational process and online games will become one of the problems for families. This study aimed to determine the relationship between internet addiction and parent–child relationships in high school girls in Isfahan. This descriptive-correlational study was conducted in girls' high school in Isfahan, Iran. One hundred and sixty students and one of their parents had participated through cluster sampling method. They filled out the Young Internet Addiction Questionnaire and the Fine et al.'s Child-Parent Questionnaire (PCRS). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tests and Pearson correlation test. The significance level of the data was considered 0.05.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents' use of social networking sites/apps has surged, and their mental health and quality of life have also been significantly affected by the pandemic and its associated social-protection measures. The present study first examined the prevalence of social networking sites/apps use and social networking addiction, the mental health status, and the health-related quality of life among Hong Kong adolescent students. It further investigated the associations of the youths' daily use of social networking sites/apps and their social networking addiction with their mental health and quality of life during the pandemic. A total of 1,147 students (age = 15.20 ± 0.53 years) recruited from 12 randomly selected local secondary schools in Hong Kong participated in a questionnaire survey in classroom settings between January and June, 2020, right after the COVID-19 outbreak. The questionnaire includes demographic characteristics and scales that measure social networking sites/apps use and social networking addiction, mental health, and quality of life.

Health promotion through teen social media can increase knowledge about  Covid - 19  by 95%  and  influence  behavior  to  prevent Covid-19 by 77%. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the  use  of  social  media  for  health  promotion  on  youth  Covid-19 knowledge  in  the  workplace  at  Batu  Panjang  Health  Centre,  Rupat District,   Bengalis   Regency in   2021. This   type of research   is quantitative analysis with a quasi-experimental    design.    The population for this study was all 12th graders at Rupat High School, for a total of 30 respondents. Research tools are using Whatsapp and Instagram  to  promote  health.  Collecting  data  using  a  questionnaire via google form. Data analysis used univariate and bivariate tests. The result of the research is that there is a difference in the average value of respondents' knowledge before and after health promotion using whatsapp  and  instagram  is  63.73  and  85.33  in  the  whatsapp  group and 64.13 and 80.00 in the instagram group.

 

While rates of child maltreatment increased during the Covid-19-pandemic, face-to-face interventions to support families got difficult to carry out due to restrictions. Meanwhile, many services do not have access to parenting programs designed for digital or remote delivery. A solution employed by some services was to use video conferencing (VC) to deliver their regular parenting programs. This study examined the effectiveness of the universal group-based parenting program ABC offered through VC instead of on-site meetings during the pandemic. Pre and post measurements were collected from 469 parents participating in either 1) ABC with VC meetings only, 2) on-site meetings only, or 3) blended – a combination of VC and on-site sessions. In addition, 74 group leaders completed a survey about their experiences of VC groups.

Personal experiences with cyber victimization among adolescents have been consistently associated with well-being problems. Few studies have examined the impact of witnessing cyber victimization on adolescent well-being. The current study examines adolescents’ personal and witnessed experiences with cyber victimization during the beginning stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The main aim of the study is to test whether witnessing cyber victimization incidents among peers strengthens or weakens the association between personal cyber victimization incidents and adolescents’ feelings of anxiety. Adolescents from the United States were recruited via social media site advertisements. An online survey was completed by 992 adolescents (Mage=16.09, SD=1.24) from ethnically diverse backgrounds (49% White, 18% Asian/ Asian-American, 14% Latinx, 9% Black/African-American, and 10% Other).