Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Adopting an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, this study examined Singaporean primary school students’ changes in reading enjoyment, reading amount, and their access to resources in print and digital formats during the COVID-19 school closure. Survey data showed reading was a more preferred leisure activity during the school closure. Students’ reading enjoyment prior to the closure was positively correlated with changes in their reading enjoyment and reading amount during the closure, for both print and digital formats. Despite the ubiquity of devices, devices were underutilised for reading purposes. Students demonstrated a clear preference for print reading over reading digitally both before and during the school closure and relied more on home than online resources for reading materials. Changes in time spent on devices during school closure were not related to changes in digital reading amount, but negatively related to changes in reading enjoyment and print reading amount over the same period, suggesting more time on devices may not naturally lead to more reading digitally.

At least 1.2 million children across Lebanon have had their education disrupted for more than one year, with many having last attended school in October 2019, following protests and civil unrest. This is impacting Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian children alike. With the country slipping deeper into an economic crisis, a safe and systematic school reopening in Lebanon is difficult to imagine. Even before this, children across the country already had lower than average literacy and numeracy rates in the Middle East region. This brief by Save the Children calls for global attention and action on the unfolding education crisis in Lebanon.  It draws from national and global data sources, sectoral recommendations, and the experiences of children in the country.

In March 2020, the majority of schools in the United States transitioned to distance learning in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Little data is available on the impact of this abrupt transition on youth, but many experts have expressed concerns about the implications of this major change in schooling on mental health and academic outcomes. The current study sought to gain insight on parent and school personnel (n = 515, n = 193) concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic related schools and the return to school within two cohorts (summer 2020, fall 2020). Primary concerns were student health, student academic development, personal health, and student mental health. These findings may assist schools in their preparation for the transitions related to COVID-19 and changes in the school year to provide resources for their families to promote their students’ development and support their school personnel’s health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended in-person public education across the United States, a critical infrastructure of care that parents—especially mothers—depend on to work. To understand the nature and magnitude of school closures across states, this study collected detailed primary data—the Elementary School Operating Status database (ESOS)—to measure the percentage of school districts offering in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction models for elementary schools by state in September 2020. These data have been linked to the Current Population Survey to evaluate the association between school reopening and parents’ labor force participation rates, comparing 2020 labor force participation rates to those observed prepandemic in 2019.

Students have been multiply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic: threats to their own and their family’s health, the closure of schools, and pivoting to online learning in March 2020, a long summer of physical distancing, and then the challenge of returning to school in fall 2020. As damaging as the physical health effects of a global pandemic are, much has been speculated about the “second wave” of mental health crises, particularly for school-aged children and adolescents. Yet, few studies have asked students about their experiences during the pandemic. The present study engaged with over two thousand (N = 2,310; 1,288 female; Mage = 14.5) 12- to 18-year-old Alberta students during their first few weeks of return-to-school in fall 2020.

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and attempts to limit its spread have resulted in a contraction of the global economy. This study documents the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic among households, adults and children in low-income countries. To do so, it relies on longitudinal household survey data from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda, originating from pre-COVID-19 face-to-face household surveys plus phone surveys implemented during the pandemic. 256 million individuals—77% of the population—are estimated to live in households that have lost income during the pandemic. Attempts to cope with this loss are exacerbated by food insecurity and an inability to access medicine and staple foods. Finally, this study finds that student– teacher contact has dropped from a pre-COVID-19 rate of 96% to just 17% among households with school-aged children. These findings can inform decisions by governments and international organizations on measures to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In early 2020 many countries closed schools to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Since then, governments have sought to relax the closures, engendering a need to understand associated risks. Using address records, this study construct a network of schools in England connected through pupils who share households. It evaluates the risk of transmission between schools under different reopening scenarios. It shows that whilst reopening select year-groups causes low risk of large-scale transmission, reopening secondary schools could result in outbreaks affecting up to 2.5 million households if unmitigated, highlighting the importance of careful monitoring and within-school infection control to avoid further school closures or other restrictions.

Given the emerging literature regarding the impacts of lockdown measures on mental health, this study aims to describe the psychosocial health of school-aged children and adolescents during the COVID-19 Saferat-Home School mandates. A cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2020 (n = 280) among K-12 students at a research school in North Central Florida. Bivariate analysis and logistic and multinomial logistic regression models were used to examine socio-demographic and knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) predictors of indicators of anxiety-related, depressive, and obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD)-related symptoms. Outcomes (anxiety, OCD, and depressive related symptoms) were measured by indices generated based on reported symptoms associated with each psychosocial outcome.

COVID-19 significantly affects all our normal life daily especially health care services, so it’s important to find and implement innovative approaches to help individuals at a high risk to resume normal life daily. The usage of digital technologies and social networking has grown rapidly over the last decades, and these technologies are increasingly being incorporated into health education. In this study, we discussed the importance of using the mHealth technology for schoolchildren with chronic disease during the COVID-19 era, and we have used Social Learning Theory and Technology Acceptance Model from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) as the theoretical framework for the present study. The previous study concluded the mobile device being studied is a reliable way of helping schoolchildren increase awareness their disease, but further research efforts should assess the impact of application usage on disease outcomes over a more extended follow-up period as compared to traditional care.

On 16 March 2020, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) took the decision to close all education institutions, including public and private schools, as a preventative measure against the spread of COVID-19. These school closures have resulted in disruptions to learning in all of Cambodia’s estimated 13,482 schools, from pre-school through to upper secondary schools, with an estimated 3.2 million students effected. In response, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), together with development partners (and other stakeholders, made significant efforts to provide continuous distance learning to children across all education levels. To assist with continuous quality improvement of distance education services during this difficult time, MoEYS and the Education Sector Working Group (ESWG) decided to undertake a comprehensive, coordinated assessment of the sector to gain evidence to help identify the best approaches to inform the further development of COVID-19 response and recovery efforts; to support the development of evidence-based response policies and practices, and to inform a holistic national response and recovery plan.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an existing learning crisis in Sierra Leone, and has disrupted the learning of over 2.4 million children across the country. The most marginalised and deprived children, including girls, children from poor households, and children from rural areas, already had limited access to good quality education prior to the pandemic, and are now at an increased risk of being left behind, and not returning to school at all. Save the Children are calling on the Government of Sierra Leone to commit to realising the right to quality education for all children by ensuring that all children are able to return to school safely, and that long-term, systemic issues with the education system damaging the quality of learning are acted on to ensure that all children are able to access good quality education.

Over recent decades, South Asia has made remarkable progress in improving the health of mothers and children. But the year 2020 brought a great shock to South Asia, as it did to the whole world. The COVID-19 pandemic has had major and multiple impacts – both direct and indirect. One of the critical indirect impacts has been severe disruptions to the delivery and use of routine services, including essential health and nutrition services. The region saw significant drops in the use of both preventive and curative services. Direct and Indirect Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic and Response in South Asia uses a series of exercises based on actual observed changes in services and intervention coverage to model impacts on mortality, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions due to COVID-19. It also models the impact of nationwide stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of COVID-19 on maternal and child mortality, educational attainment of children, and the region’s economy. The study focuses on South Asia’s six most populous countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and makes the case for interventions and strategies to minimise these indirect consequences.

Understanding the role of children in SARS-CoV-2 transmission is critical to guide decision-making for schools in the pandemic. We aimed to describe the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among children and adult staff in summer schools.

The period of confinement motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic and established by the governments of different countries has influenced the lifestyle of millions of children, not being able to continue carrying out multiple educational activities as they did until confinement. The objective of this research was to determine and analyze whether the living conditions of children during the period of confinement caused by COVID-19 influenced their daily educational activities. A descriptive, comparative and cross-sectional quantitative study with a non-experimental design was carried out, with a single measurement in a single group. Factors associate with living conditions were analyzed, such as the place of residence and the type of house in which Spanish children have been confined, as well as the number and use of technological devices. The parents' perception of the children's state of fatigue, happiness, energy and tiredness was also analyzed.