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AUTHOR(S) Michael Amick; Kathryn Bentivegna; Amy A. Hunter (et al.)
Previous studies of national emergency department (ED) data demonstrate a decrease in visits coded for physical abuse during the pandemic period. However, no study to date has examined the incidence of multiple child maltreatment types (physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect), within a single state while considering state-specific closure policies. Furthermore, no similar study has utilized detailed chart review to identify cases, nor compared hospital data to Child Protective Services (CPS) reports. This study aims to determine the incidence of child maltreatment-related ED visits before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, including characterizing the type of maltreatment, severity, and CPS reporting.
AUTHOR(S) Seung Yeop Paek; Julak Lee; Yeon-Jun Choi
The purpose of the current research was to examine the predictors of cyberbullying victimization among South Korean students during a period in which the coronavirus disease was spreading worldwide. This study assessed whether parental guardianship protected against victimization when most people worked from home and school instructions were shifted to online learning. It analyzed nationally representative data collected between October 6 and November 13, 2020. Binary logistic regression models were developed based on the Routine Activities Theory theoretical model to investigate the correlates of cyberbullying victimization among participants.
AUTHOR(S) Mengqing Long; Jia Huang; Yishun Peng (et al.)
AUTHOR(S) Fiorella Caron; Pierre Tourneux; Hyppolite Tchidjou Kuekou (et al.)
AUTHOR(S) Rachel Martin; Sonali Rajan; Faizah Shareef (et al.)
Childhood exposure to neighborhood firearm violence adversely affects mental and physical health across the life course. Study objectives were to (1) quantify racial disparities in these exposures across the U.S. and (2) assess changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, when firearm violence increased. The study used counts of children aged 5–17 years, disaggregated by U.S. Census racial category, for every census tract (N=73,056). Neighborhood firearm violence was the number of fatal shootings per census tract, based on 2015–2021 Gun Violence Archive data. Quasi-Poisson regressions were used to estimate baseline disparities and COVID-19‒related changes and examined differences across geographic regions.
AUTHOR(S) Lauren Risser; Rachel P. Berger; Veronica Renov (et al.)
Children experiencing family violence (child abuse and neglect and exposure to intimate partner violence) are at a particularly elevated risk for compounding challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, intimate partner violence (IPV) advocates, child protective services (CPS) caseworkers, and IPV and CPS administrators on the needs of children experiencing family violence during the pandemic were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews with IPV advocates, CPS caseworkers, and IPV and CPS administrators were conducted. Recruitment occurred through emails to national and state listservs, networks of the study team, and word of mouth. Interviews were completed through Zoom, took 45 to 60 minutes and were audio recorded. A mixed deductive-inductive content analysis approach was used.
AUTHOR(S) Stavros Stivaros; Michael Paddock; Azita Rajai (et al.)
This paper aims to assess the number, type and outcome of radiological investigations for children presenting to hospital with suspected physical abuse (SPA; including abusive head trauma) during the first national COVID-19 enforced lockdown compared with the prelockdown period. Rate and severity of radiological features of physical abuse in children during the first UK-wide COVID-19 enforced national lockdown.
AUTHOR(S) Christina M. Theodorou; Erin G. Brown; Jordan E. Jackson (et al.)
The COVID-19 pandemic had widespread effects, including enhanced psychosocial stressors and stay-at-home orders which may be associated with higher rates of child abuse. This study aimed to evaluate rates of child abuse, neglect, and inadequate supervision during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients ≤5 years old admitted to a level one pediatric trauma center between 3/19/20-9/19/20 (COVID-era) were compared to a pre-COVID cohort (3/19/19-9/19/19). The primary outcome was the rate of child abuse, neglect, or inadequate supervision, determined by Child Protection Team and Social Work consultations. Secondary outcomes included injury severity score (ISS), mortality, and discharge disposition.
AUTHOR(S) Corry Azzopardi; Cynthia Sing-Yu Shih; Andrea M. Burke (et al.)
AUTHOR(S) Samantha Vermeulen; Lenneke R. A. Alink; Sheila R. van Berkel (et al.)
Children make up 50% of those affected in humanitarian crises and are disproportionately impacted by conflict and crisis. Throughout 2020 and 2021, COVID-19, conflict and climate change have been impacting children at unprecedented scale, putting them at risk and driving displacement, poverty and violence. Whilst funding for child protection is increasing, child protection consistently remains one of the most underfunded sectors in humanitarian action and funds not meeting increasing needs. Closing this gap will require collective action to change the way we think about children’s protection and its centrality to crisis response. This report highlights key areas associated with funding for child protection in humanitarian crises, including both cluster and refugee responses in 2020. A snapshot is also given for 2021 with data available as of October 2021
AUTHOR(S) Andrew Bacher-Hicks; Joshua Goodman; Jennifer G. Green (et al.)
One-fifth of U.S. high school students report being bullied each year. This study uses internet search data for real-time tracking of bullying patterns as COVID-19 disrupted in-person schooling. It first shows that, prepandemic, internet searches contain useful information about actual bullying behavior. It then shows that searches for school bullying and cyberbullying dropped 30-35 percent as schools shifted to remote learning in spring 2020. The gradual return to in-person instruction starting in fall 2020 partially returns bullying searches to pre-pandemic levels. This rare positive effect may partly explain recent mixed evidence on the pandemic’s impact on students’ mental health and well-being.
AUTHOR(S) Sonia Mukhtar
AUTHOR(S) Lindsey Rose Bullinger; Stevan Marcus; Katherine Reuben (et al.)
AUTHOR(S) Margaret C. Stevenson; Cynthia T. Schaefer; Vaishnavi M. Ravipati (et al.)
Nurses who are also parents may be at risk not only for professional compassion fatigue, but also parental burnout – a reliable and valid predictor of child abuse and neglect. In support, recent research reveals that parents' COVID-19 related stressors predicted elevated potential for child abuse (Katz and Fallon, 2021). This study explored the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on nurses' parental burnout, child abuse, and child neglect, as mediated by compassion fatigue (i.e., a combination of job burnout and secondary traumatic stress). Participants were 244 nurses (M age = 32.4; 87% female) who were parents of young children (age 12 or under) recruited via chain referral sampling.
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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