Children and COVID-19 Research Library

When the new coronavirus rapidly spread across the globe, the impact of the virus on children was still unclear, and closing schools seemed the responsible thing to do. But much has been learnt since about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the effects of lockdown and school closures, both in South Africa and internationally. This article aims  to show that the mortality risk of the virus is extremely small for children, even when assuming an extremely pessimistic scenario for total COVID-19 deaths.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of expectant parents and parents of young babies, with disruptions in health care provision and loss of social support. Objective: This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdown on this population through the lens of users of the UK National Health Service–approved pregnancy and parenting smartphone app, Baby Buddy. The study aims were threefold: to gain insights into the attitudes and experiences of expectant and recent parents (with babies under 24 weeks of age) during the COVID-19 pandemic; to investigate whether Baby Buddy is meeting users’ needs during this time; and to identify ways to revise the content of Baby Buddy to better support its users now and in future.

COVID-19 containment measures have left adolescent girls in Nairobi, Kenya vulnerable to negative educational, economic, and secondary health outcomes that threaten their safe transitions into adulthood. In June 2020, the Population Council conducted phone-based surveys with 856 girls aged between 10 and 19 in 5 informal settlements who had been surveyed prior to COVID-19 as part of five longitudinal studies. We performed bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses to assess the relationship between COVID-19 outcomes and potential protective or risk factors. We found that younger girls are experiencing high levels of food insecurity and difficulty learning from home during school closures, while many older girls face the immediate risk of dropping out of school permanently and have been forgoing needed health services.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown has shattered the everyday lives of young people, limiting peer interactions and disrupting privacy, with potential for long-term detrimental impacts. This study uses rapid virtual quantitative and qualitative surveys undertaken from April to July 2020 with over 4,800 adolescents affected by displacement in Bangladesh and Jordan to explore adolescent girls’ experiences of social isolation and lack of privacy.

The outbreaks of Covid-19 influence the Indonesian education nationally, including early childhood education (PAUD). Since the school closures in March, the teachers have attempted to implement the distance learning. This study is conducted in a school in Kendal. The teacher shared her experiences in conducting the learning based on the emergency curriculum. It is found that the government has given the support by publishing the twelve books for the learning at home policy and providing the internet data. Most of the books are about playing with children and positive communication. Parents’ roles in distance learning have greater proportion than the teachers. Parents in this situation have the duties to supervise the learning, to conduct the learning, and to assist teachers in assessment. The teachers construct the weekly lesson plan, communicate the steps of learning process, and evaluate the students’ progress. However, both teachers and parents experience barriers due to the lack of skills in using technology and inability to provide learning materials to support six aspects of child development.

 

Although youth report many positive experiences with social media (SM) use in their daily lives, adolescents with depression are more vulnerable to the risks of SM use than adolescents without depression. Parents protect adolescents with depression from the risks of SM use by monitoring their child’s SM activity; however, this comes into conflict with the adolescent’s need for autonomy in their web-based communication. The implications of SM use and monitoring for adolescents with depression and their parents are of particular relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic, as rates of SM use have increased in response to physical distancing measures. Objective: This study aims to explore parent and child perspectives regarding the use and function of SM in the daily lives of adolescents with depression and parents’ perceptions of and experience with monitoring their child’s SM use.

To clarify the physical and mental conditions of children during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and consequent social distancing in relation to the mental condition of their caregivers. This internet-based nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted between April 30 and May 13, 2020. The participants were 1,200 caregivers of children aged 3–14 years. Child health issues were categorized into “at least one” or “none” according to caregivers’ perception. Caregivers’ mental status was assessed using the Japanese version of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale-6.

The COVID-19 crisis has revealed and deepened existing language and media gaps for deaf children. There was already an ongoing crisis for deaf children in the US: language deprivation. Language deprivation is caused by a lack of access to natural language during the critical period for language development, generally age 0–5 years. The COVID-19 pandemic is now intersecting with and amplifying language gaps for deaf children in the US. For kids whose school has moved online, the majority living with non-signing families are spending more time isolated at home. In virtual schooling, deaf children are using tools not built for them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only paralysed much of the world’s economic activities, but it has also made an impact on the educational work of schools and families, teachers, and communities. This brief contribution will sketch the effects of the pandemic on indigenous children and teenagers in Veracruz, Mexico, who are being affected by the closure of their schools – schools that are part of a public network of intercultural and bilingual education for indigenous students, conceived by the Mexican nation-state with the aim of including an intercultural approach and of taking advantage of the diversity of diversities as a learning resource. After describing the negative impacts the COVID-19 pandemic is having on these children and youngsters, this study will also briefly outline some positive long-term effects the pandemic and school closure crisis may have on the future of intercultural education in Veracruz and Mexico.

The COVID-19 pandemic could increase violence against children at home. However, collecting empirical data on violence is challenging due to ethical, safety, and data quality concerns. This study estimated the anticipated effect of COVID-19 on violent discipline at home using multivariable predictive regression models.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted and posed great challenges for kindergarten-grade12 education systems. Initial studies on education and COVID-19 often focus on technology use, student learning, and school reopening plans. However, debates on the form of instruction become futile when stakeholders are unclear about what the competing values, issues, and priorities are. Using exploratory data analysis of a representative sample of US teachers and school leaders, this paper highlights key organisational issues and priorities in terms of addressing academic achievement gaps, students’ online engagement, and teachers’ and students’ health. More fundamentally, deeper issues are uncovered like equity for those doubly disadvantaged by the pandemic, student engagement in the face of more pressing concerns, and health both physical and mental. More theoretically, the research contributes to understanding schools’ responses to societal crises and the need to clarify competing values during decision-making in the face of such crises.

This article aims to provide theoretical and practical perspectives on children, women, and sex trafficking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Process tracing is employed as a primary research instrument. It is an analytical technique used for either theory-building or theory-testing purposes that is employed to elucidate causation and change as well as to develop and evaluate extant theories in social sciences. This study illustrates that a policy is needed that will strengthen the capacity of existing structures in the fight against the underlying trafficking so that these attendant structures are efficiently used to stop the trafficking and avoid the corresponding threats to public health safety.

This study aimed to examine the relations between mothers’ stress (PSI-SF) and their children during the COVID-19 pandemic confinement in mainland China (N  = 274; mean age = 32.95, SD = 5.59). Its analyses revealed mothers identified more stress problems during the confinement than before including Difficult Child, Parental Distress, and Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction, which predicted requests for clinical or parents support services. Mothers living in rural areas reported less stress. Single mothers and those in small households displayed a higher level of stress. This research results may assist policymakers, professionals, and researchers to design support needed to promote families’ psychological well-being.

Bangladesh has been going through incremental trend of GDP growth rates for a long time. The GDP is the key aspect to measure the economic growth of a country. But the current world wide pandemic due to the COVID-19 hardly affects the world’s economy as well as Bangladesh. The present lockdown make the wheel of the industries uncertain. The main source of the GDP of this country is ready made garment sector which has been shut down since mid of March 2020. Already 20 billion of cancellation of foreign order makes the situation worse. Also, the foreign remittance has been decline dramatically due to the loss of jobs of Bangladeshi workers in foreign countries. The overall economic situation declines in this country due to the COVID-19 which has huge impact on the health care system especially in maternal and child health. In this paper, the economic situation of Bangladesh before and during the COVID-19 has been shown. Also, how the COVID-19 would affect the condition of maternal and child health across the country directly as well as indirectly through the GDP has been discussed.

In 2020, Norwegian society was in lockdown for seven weeks due to the rapid spread of the corona virus. During this period, young people (YP) aged 13–20 years participated in a survey investigating risk perception and experiences related to COVID-19. Participants (n ¼ 244) were recruited from a popular website for youths in Norway. YP’s experience of risk was related to their concern about spreading the virus to close loved ones. They worried about their future with regards to education and social life. They called for more information directed at young people. Being informed and trusting the information received, decreased anxiety.