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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

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5521 - 5535 of 6640
COVID-19: Missing More Than a Classroom. The impact of school closures on children’s nutrition

AUTHOR(S)
Artur Borkowski; Javier Santiago Ortiz Correa; Donald A. P. Bundy; Carmen Burbano; Chika Hayashi; Edward Lloyd-Evans; Jutta Neitzel; Nicolas Reuge

In 2019, 135 million people in 55 countries were in food crises or worse, and 2 billion people did not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food. COVID-19 has exacerbated these hardships and may result in an additional 121 million people facing acute food insecurity by the end of 2020. Further, since the beginning of the pandemic, an estimated 1.6 billion learners in 199 countries worldwide were affected by school closures, with nearly 370 million children not receiving a school meal in 150 countries.

The paper presents the evidence on the potential negative short-term and long-term effects of school meal scheme disruption during Covid-19 globally. It shows how vulnerable the children participating in these schemes are, how coping and mitigation measures are often only short-term solutions, and how prioritizing school re-opening is critical. For instance, it highlights how girls are at greater risk of not being in school or of being taken out of school early, which may lead to poor nutrition and health for themselves and their children. However, well-designed school feeding programmes have been shown to enable catch-up from early growth failure and other negative shocks. As such, once schools re-open, school meal schemes can help address the deprivation that children have experienced during the closures and provide an incentive for parents to send and keep their children, especially girls, in school.

Labour market shocks during the COVID-19 pandemic, inequalities and child outcomes

AUTHOR(S)
Claudia Hupkau; Ingo E. Isphording; Stephen Machin

Published: December 2020
This study analyzes the effect of negative labour market shocks borne by parents during the Covid-19 crisis on resource and time investments in children and the channels through which negative labour market shocks experienced by parents might affect children. Using data collected in the UK before and during the pandemic, it shows that fathers and mothers that were already disadvantaged were more likely to have suffered negative earnings and employment shocks. These shocks had an immediate intergenerational impact: Children whose fathers reported an earnings drop to zero are significantly less likely to have received additional paid learning resources compared to similar children whose fathers did not experience a drop in earnings.
Girls' education and COVID-19 in Ethiopia
Institution: Malala Fund
Published: December 2020

COVID-19 is creating a girls’ education crisis in Ethiopia, threatening to reverse the country’s recent progress towards gender equality in education. Over the last two decades, the Ethiopian government has expanded its education system and made important gains for girls at the primary and secondary levels. The net enrolment rate in elementary school increased from 29% in 1989 to 86% in 2017. The same year the Gender Parity Index also reached 0.90 at the primary level and 0.87 at the secondary level. However, harmful traditional practices, social norms and poverty continue to prevent girls from completing their education, resulting in high dropout rates at the secondary level.

Tackling torture: victims with disabilities in the COVID-19 outbreak
Institution: Validity Foundation
Published: December 2020

Applying the antitorture framework to the situation of people with disabilities during a pandemic is no simple task. Yet, it is an important one, perhaps most importantly in prompting states to prevent ongoing and future violations from occurring. This is an immensely complex legal undertaking, requiring cumulative assessments of legislation, emergency powers, public health policy and vast quantities of data, while also assessing the levels of harm that have been caused, or that could have been reasonably foreseeable. This process, which must remain grounded in international human rights law, necessarily gives rise to complicated questions of law, policy and ethics, and indeed the very scope of protection provided under international law. This anthology cannot answer all of these questions and does not purport to do so. Instead, its single purpose is to promote critical reflection, discussion and debate amongst legal communities and disability rights defenders. Some articles clearly open more questions than they answer, but it is our hope that this collection can stimulate greater levels of action to prevent and redress suffering in the weeks and months to come. It also serves as a launching pad for developing more sustainable, non[1]discriminatory public policies which protect fundamental human rights, even during periods of crisis.

The challenges and opportunities of sustaining academia-sponsored community service programs for Latinx youth during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Cheryne M. Kim; Brittany R. Silverman; Claudio Cortes

Published: December 2020   Journal: Journal of Hispanic Higher Education
The COVID-19 pandemic has widely affected existing academia-sponsored community service initiatives. Little is known about the strategies to sustain these initiatives during a public health crisis and the potential effects on community well-being and education. In this case study, we describe the impact of the pandemic on service partnerships between our medical school and the Latinx community, discuss the challenges and opportunities of transitioning to a virtual community service model, and offer solutions and considerations.
COVID-19 job and income loss jeopardize child well-being: income support policies can help

AUTHOR(S)
Rebekah Levine Coley

Institution: Society for Research in Child Development
Published: December 2020
Within just the first three months of the COVID-19 financial fallout, one in five children in the United States experienced the job loss of an adult in their household. As the pandemic continues and the challenges of job and income recovery persist, families will continue to face unprecedented economic uncertainty. The burdens of job loss and continued economic uncertainty are felt by a wide range of families, though they are especially elevated among lower-income households and families of color. COVID-19-driven increases in job loss, income instability, and resulting strains on housing and food security are impairing child and family wellbeing. Temporary policy supports – such as stimulus checks, expanded Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits, rent moratoriums, and expanded food programs – helped stem these losses and protect children. Yet, burdensome distribution mechanisms and the temporary nature of such benefits limited their reach. As policy supports expire, economic harm is growing. Renewal and reinstatement of economic supports will reduce the stress of economic uncertainty, help financially stabilize families, and enhance parents’ capacity to support their children’s development.
Through their eyes: exploring the complex drivers of child marriage in humanitarian contexts

AUTHOR(S)
Elizabeth Presler-Marshall; Nicola Jones; Sarah Alheiwidi

Institution: Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence
Published: December 2020
Child marriage, while declining in most parts of the world, remains common in many communities – especially in countries beset by conflict and other humanitarian disasters. Indeed, all 10 of the countries with the highest rates of child marriage are considered fragile, and research has found that child marriage is one of the issues most sensitive to conflict. A growing body of evidence underscores that this is because although the drivers of child marriage tend to be similar across development and humanitarian contexts – and revolve around physical and economic insecurities and deep-seated gender norms – fragility, conflict and disaster augment concerns and can increase the risk of child marriage. This report begins with a brief overview of the evidence base. It then describes the sample and methodological approach used by Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) to explore the drivers of child marriage in humanitarian settings and how tailored policy and programming might be brought to bear to reduce it.
Gender specific differences in COVID-19 knowledge, behavior and health effects among adolescents and young adults in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, India

AUTHOR(S)
Jessie Pinchoff; K. G. Santhya; Corinne White (et al.)

Published: December 2020   Journal: Plos One
On March 24, 2020 India implemented a national lockdown to prevent spread of the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) among its 1.3 billion people. As the pandemic may disproportionately impact women and girls, this study examines gender differences in knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms and preventive behaviors, as well as the adverse effects of the lockdown among adolescents and young adults. A mobile phone-based survey was implemented from April 3–22, 2020 in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar among respondents randomly selected from an existing cohort study.
Caring under COVID-19: how the pandemic is – and is not – changing unpaid care and domestic work responsibilities in the United States

AUTHOR(S)
Brian Heilman; María Rosario Castro Bernardini; Kimberly Pfeifer

Published: December 2020

This report provides six new insights on the unfolding crisis of care, along with PL+US highlighting the need for paid leave, policy changes that are intersectional and that account for and remedy existing inequalities, and better inclusion in decision-making of those individuals with a clear view of inequalities. This report is the first in a series of similar polls in the #HowICare Project which will be published by Oxfam International in four other countries: UK, Canada, Philippines, and Kenya.

Exercise routine change is associated with prenatal depression scores during the COVID-19 pandemic among pregnant women across the United States

AUTHOR(S)
Theresa E. Gildner; Elise J. Laugier; Zaneta M. Thayer

Published: December 2020   Journal: Plos One
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected physical and mental health worldwide. Pregnant women already exhibit an elevated risk for depression compared to the general public, a pattern expected to be exacerbated by the pandemic. Certain lifestyle factors, including moderate exercise, may help support mental health during pregnancy, but it is unclear how the pandemic may impact these associations across different locations. This study tested whether: (i) reported exercise routine alterations during the pandemic are associated with depression scores; and, (ii) the likelihood of reporting pandemic-related exercise changes varies between women living in metro areas and those in non-metro areas.
Influencing policy to reduce child marriage in India: reflections from young lives

AUTHOR(S)
Kath Ford; Renu Singh

Institution: Young Lives Longitudinal Study
Published: December 2020
In October 2017, India’s Supreme Court issued a landmark judgement ruling that a man who has sex with his wife where she is less than 18 years old, is committing rape. Evidence from Young Lives longitudinal data and national census analysis by the Young Lives India team contributed directly to this important change in the law, aiming to reduce child marriage. In June 2020, the Government of India established a task force to consider increasing the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years of age. Young Lives evidence is again making an important contribution to this debate, at a time of huge social and economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This report discusses how longitudinal research can influence policy change and what the potential impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic might be on levels of child marriage.
Effects of voluntary event cancellation and school closure as countermeasures against COVID-19 outbreak in Japan

AUTHOR(S)
Yoshiyuki Sugishita; Junko Kurita; Tamie Sugawara

Published: December 2020   Journal: Plos One
To control the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan, sports and entertainment events were canceled and schools were closed throughout Japan from February 26 through March 19. That policy has been designated as voluntary event cancellation and school closure (VECSC). This study assesses VECSC effectiveness based on predicted outcomes. A simple susceptible–infected–recovered model was applied to data of patients with symptoms in Japan during January 14 through March 26. The respective reproduction numbers for periods before VECSC (R0), during VECSC (Re), and after VECSC (Ra) were estimated.
Measures implemented in the school setting to contain the COVID‐19 pandemic: a rapid scoping review

AUTHOR(S)
Shari Krishnaratne; Lisa M. Pfadenhauer; Michaela Coenen (et al.)

Published: December 2020

In response to the spread of SARS‐CoV‐2 and the impact of COVID‐19, national and subnational governments implemented a variety of measures in order to control the spread of the virus and the associated disease. While these measures were imposed with the intention of controlling the pandemic, they were also associated with severe psychosocial, societal, and economic implications on a societal level. One setting affected heavily by these measures is the school setting. By mid‐April 2020, 192 countries had closed schools, affecting more than 90% of the world’s student population. In consideration of the adverse consequences of school closures, many countries around the world reopened their schools in the months after the initial closures. To safely reopen schools and keep them open, governments implemented a broad range of measures. The evidence with regards to these measures, however, is heterogeneous, with a multitude of study designs, populations, settings, interventions and outcomes being assessed. To make sense of this heterogeneity, we conducted a rapid scoping review (8 October to 5 November 2020). This rapid scoping review is intended to serve as a precursor to a systematic review of effectiveness, which will inform guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Rural disparities in early childhood well child visit attendance
Published: December 2020   Journal: Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Young children (ages 1–5) living in rural Virginia attend fewer well child visits than their urban counterparts. Variability in well child visit attendance rates can be detected using an estimate of the developed land in the zip code. Covid-19 may further impact rural children's access to developmental screenings because of limited access to telemedicine. Children should attend well child visits (WCVs) during early childhood so that developmental disorders may be identified as early as possible, so treatment can begin. The aim of this research was to determine if rurality impacts access to WCV during early childhood, and if altering rurality measurement methods impacts outcomes.

Parents’ and guardians’ views and experiences of accessing routine childhood vaccinations during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: a mixed methods study in England

AUTHOR(S)
Sadie Bell; Richard Clarke; Paulin Paterson (et al.)

Published: December 2020   Journal: Plos One
This study aims to explore parents’ and guardians’ views and experiences of accessing National Health Service (NHS) general practices for routine childhood vaccinations during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in England.
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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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Each quarterly thematic digest features the latest evidence drawn from the Children and COVID-19 Research Library on a particular topic of interest.
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COVID-19 & Children: Rapid Research Response

UNICEF Innocenti is mobilizing a rapid research response in line with UNICEF’s global response to the COVID-19 crisis. The initiatives we’ve begun will provide the broad range of evidence needed to inform our work to scale up rapid assessment, develop urgent mitigating strategies in programming and advocacy, and preparation of interventions to respond to the medium and longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. The research projects cover a rapid review of evidence, education analysis, and social and economic policies.