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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

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91 - 105 of 215
Diffusion of COVID-19 among children and adolescents during the second and third waves of the pandemic in Italy

AUTHOR(S)
Francesca Bassi; Mattia Doria

Published: January 2022   Journal: European Journal of Pediatrics
This paper explores COVID-19 diffusion among children and adolescents (up to 19 years old) in Italy using the publicly available data that were collected and released by the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS). It considers in more detail the so-called second and third waves of the pandemic in Italy and explores the relationship between schools opening and the diffusion of COVID-19, which is a highly debated topic in the recent reference literature. It analyses the dynamics of COVID-19 incidence in the country as a whole and in its individual regions. Moreover, it compares the regions in which different levels of restrictions were imposed during the pandemic as well as different school closure calendars.
Parents’ willingness to vaccinate their children with COVID-19 vaccine: results of a survey in Italy

AUTHOR(S)
Gabriella Di Giuseppe; Concetta Paola Pelullo; Andrea Salvatore Volgare (et al.)

Published: January 2022   Journal: Journal of Adolescent Health

This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the parents’ willingness to vaccinate their children with COVID-19 vaccine and related determinants with specific attention to willingness for adolescents as compared to younger children. Data were collected through a confidential online questionnaire.

Childhood confined by COVID-19 in Italy and the impacts on the right to education

AUTHOR(S)
Fernando Donizete Alves; Aline Sommerhalder; Concetta La Rocca (et al.)

Published: January 2022   Journal: International Journal of Early Years Education
This article aimed to assess the impact of school closures in Italy on children's lives, particularly in Early Childhood Education, as a result of the Covid-19 containment measures. A set of documents published by the Italian government related to the measures to contain the covid-19 were analyzed. Based on content analysis, three categories of analysis were defined: 1) containment measures and social life; 2) school closures and distance education; 3) the return of face-to-face activities in early childhood education. The results indicated that the containment measures imposed severe restrictions on children's social interaction, such as the closing of public and private spaces (parks, museums, etc.) and the impossibility of moments of interaction and collective play. They impacted the right to education by closing schools when distance education was implemented as a measure to reduce potential damage to children's learning and overall development. For the resumption of in-person activities in schools, there should be priority use of open spaces, social distancing, and measures of personal and collective hygiene. Another significant result is the consideration of daycare centers and pre-school as essential services by the Italian government.
Italian same-sex parenting in times of COVID-19: constructing parenthood on insecure grounds

AUTHOR(S)
Salvatore Monaco

Published: January 2022   Journal: Family Relations

This article focuses on the challenges same-sex-parent families in Italy have faced in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. It is universally acknowledged that Italy was the first victim of the novel coronavirus in Europe. Due to the hazards caused by the pandemic, the Italian government implemented a series of countermeasures to help families, resolving the increasingly irreconcilable conflicts between work and childcare, providing financing to the most poverty-stricken families. However, some initiatives have made it clear that in Italy, not all people have received equal benefits. To further investigate and bring awareness to the issue of the vulnerability of Italian same-sex-parent families in times of COVID-19, 40 in-depth interviews were conducted online between March and June 2020 to collect data on attitudes, opinions, and behaviors at the individual level.

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.
The impact of COVID-19 on physical activity behaviour in Italian primary school children: a comparison before and during pandemic considering gender differences

AUTHOR(S)
Laura Dallolio; Sofia Marini; Alice Masini (et al.)

Published: January 2022   Journal: BMC Public Health volume

The World Health Organization stated an average of 60 min of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) that children should accumulate every day. Nevertheless physical inactivity is growing and, due to restrictions imposed during pandemic, PA levels of children might be more negatively affected. The study aimed to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the PA of an Italian sample of primary school children by comparing it before and during COVID-19 considering gender differences. A pre-post analysis (October 2019–January 2021) was conducted using a randomized sample (N = 77) from the I-MOVE study settled in an Italian primary school. Both objective (Actigraph accelerometers) and self-reported (PAQ-c questionnaires) assessments of PA were performed. Changes were compared using T-Student and Chi-Square test. Gender differences were calculated using Anova.

Maternal mood moderates the trajectory of emotional and behavioural problems from pre- to during the COVID-19 lockdown in preschool children

AUTHOR(S)
Alessandra Frigerio; Francesca Nettuno; Sarah Nazzari

Published: January 2022   Journal: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown have dramatically impacted families’ life, raising serious concerns about children’s emotional wellbeing. However, few studies have investigated whether the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on psychological adjustment in youngest can be moderated by maternal mood and, to our knowledge, none of them has adopted a longitudinal design. The main aim of the current study was to explore if the intensity and directionality of maternal mood symptoms moderated the trajectory of emotional and behavioural problems in Italian pre-schoolers from pre- to during the lockdown adopting a longitudinal design. To assess maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, the EPDS and the STAI-Y were filled in by 94 and 88 women before the lockdown, when their children were 1 (Wave P1) and 3 years old (Wave P2), respectively, and by 74 women during the lockdown, when their children were 4 years old (Wave L). Mothers also filled in the CBCL/1 ½–5 to assess their children’s emotional and behavioural problems at each assessment wave.
Parental COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: a cross-sectional survey in Italy

AUTHOR(S)
Aida Bianco; Giorgia Della Polla; Silvia Angelillo (et al.)

Published: January 2022   Journal: Expert Review of Vaccines

Understanding parents’ hesitancy against COVID-19 vaccination for their children is useful. A self-administered online survey was conducted among 394 parents with at least one child aged 12–18 years in Italy.

Psychosocial impact of 8 weeks COVID-19 quarantine on Italian parents and their children

AUTHOR(S)
Bassem J. Khoory; Maya W. Keuning; Anne C. Fledderus (et al.)

Published: January 2022   Journal: Maternal and Child Health Journal

Italy was affected greatly by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), emerging mainly in the Italian province of Lombardy. This outbreak led to profound governmental interventions along with a strict quarantine. This quarantine may have psychosocial impact on children and parents in particular. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of 8 weeks COVID-19 quarantine on psychosocial functioning of Italian parents and their children. In this cross-sectional survey, we included parents and children resided in Italy during the 8 weeks COVID-19 quarantine. We evaluated social and emotional functioning, clinical symptoms possibly related to emotional distress, and change in perspectives using a questionnaire.

Risk and protective factors of quality of life for children with autism spectrum disorder and their families during the COVID-19 lockdown: an Italian study

AUTHOR(S)
Maria Grazia Logrieco; Laura Casula; Giuseppe Niccolò Ciuffreda (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: Research in Developmental Disabilities

The lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a difficult period for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and their families. The aim of this study was to investigate the predictors of the quality of life (QoL) of children with ASD and their parents throughout the first lockdown, providing a snapshot of the impact of the pandemic on these families life. A cohort of 243 parents of children with ASD (2–15 years old) completed an original online survey regarding the modification of ASD cores symptoms during lockdown, the type of interventions they had done before and during lockdown and the activities performed by the child. Respondents filled the PedsQL for themselves and their children.

Smartphone and social media use contributed to individual tendencies towards social media addiction in Italian adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Davide Marengo; Matteo Angelo Fabris; Claudio Longobardi (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: Addictive Behaviors

Adolescents in remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic had few opportunities to socialize in person, resulting in a significant rise in the use of social networks or instant messaging applications. However, excessive use may promote addictive tendencies towards these platforms, with negative consequences for adolescents’ well-being. This study investigated the prevalence of smartphone and social media application use in early-to-late adolescents in remote education. It examined the relative impact of different social media applications on self-reported tendencies toward social media addiction. The sample consisted of 765 Italian adolescents (Age: M = 14.11 ± 2.2; 401 females) who reported on use of the smartphone, social media applications, namely WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, Messenger, and YouTube.

Competitive sport after SARS-CoV-2 infection in children

AUTHOR(S)
Giulia Cafiero; Flaminia Passi; Francesca Ippolita Calo (et al.)

Published: November 2021   Journal: Italian Journal of Pediatrics
With the gradual resumption of sports activities after the lock-down period for coronavirus pandemic, a new problem is emerging: Allow all athletes to be able to return to compete after SARS-CoV-2 infection in total safety. Several protocols have been proposed for healed athletes but all of them have been formulated for the adult population. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the adequacy of Italian practical recommendations for return-to-paly, in order to exclude cardiorespiratory complications due to COVID-19 in children and adolescents. Between April 2020 and January 2021 the Italian Sports Medical Federation formulated cardiorespiratory protocols to be applied to athletes recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection. The protocols take into account the severity of the infection. Protocols include lung function tests, cardiopulmonary exercise test, echocardiographic evaluation, blood chemistry tests.
The COVID-19 pandemic and school closure: learning loss in mathematics in primary education

AUTHOR(S)
Dalit Contini; Maria Laura Di Tommaso; Caterina Muratori (et al.)

Published: October 2021
taly was the first Western country hit by Covid-19 in February 2020, responding with a tight lockdown and full school closure until the end of the school year. This paper estimates the effect of the pandemic and school closure on the math skills of primary school pupils in Italy. It compares the learning achievements of two cohorts of pupils, the pre-Covid and the Covid cohort. For both cohorts, it matches scores on the national standardised assessment in grade 2 with scores on a standardised test delivered by the researchers at the end of grade 3.
Italian children’s well-being after lockdown: predictors of psychopathological symptoms in times of COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Marcella Caputi; Barbara Forresi; Ludovica Giani (et al.)

Published: October 2021   Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
The first Italian lockdown imposed to fight the spread of COVID-19 caused important disruptions in families’ everyday lives. The main aim of this research was to investigate the predictors of psychopathology in children aged 5–10 years, immediately after the national 2-month lockdown. A total of 158 Italian parents (148 mothers, 10 fathers, mean age = 41 years) were recruited and asked to complete an online research concerning their 158 children (76 boys, mean age = 7.4 years). Parents completed questionnaires on parent–child conflict, resilience, temperament, behavior, and previous adverse childhood experiences. Hierarchical regressions showed that children’s psychopathology was predicted by low child resilience, high novelty seeking and harm avoidance, adverse experiences, and high flooding levels. Moreover, girls exposed to adverse experiences appeared more vulnerable to psychopathology.
Families between care, education and work: the effects of the pandemic on educational inequalities in Italy and Milan

AUTHOR(S)
Marta Cordini; Gianluca De Angelis

Published: October 2021   Journal: European Journal of Education
Italy was the first Western country affected by the pandemic. The school closures that followed lasted for a full school semester, including final exams. Italy is already known as a country with a high degree of educational inequality, where reproduction of social disadvantages by social origins is prominent. In such a situation, this study hypothesises that a prolonged lockdown and the consequent reliance on remote education have played an important role in exacerbating existing inequalities. Families were forced to take on the full responsibility of educating their children, which has reinforced the role of household resources. The analysis presented in this article draws on results from an online survey of the effects of school closures on educational practices, the analysis focused on responses from parents of primary school students.
91 - 105 of 215

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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