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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

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151 - 165 of 300
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic childhood obesity is still an epidemic-spotlight on obesity's multifactorial determinants

AUTHOR(S)
Katya Saliba; Sarah Cuschieri

Published: December 2021   Journal: Health Sciences Review

Childhood obesity is a global epidemic and a chronic disease. Multifactorial determinants have long been linked with childhood obesity. These have been challenged with the onset of COVID-19 and the associated mitigation measures. The study aimed to re-highlight these determinants while exploring the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on these pre-existing childhood obesity determinants, while providing evidence that may be beneficial for the post-COVID-19 recovery plan. A PubMed literature search (2016–2021) using the keywords, “childhood obesity”, “gender”, “sex”, “obesity in youth”, “obesity in adolescents”, “COVID-19″ and “SARS-CoV2” was performed.

Child behavior problems during COVID-19: associations with parent distress and child social-emotional skills

AUTHOR(S)
Jing Sun; Britt Singletary; Hui Jiang (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated government-mandated shutdowns disrupted schooling, socialization, and family life for school-aged children during spring 2020. These disruptions may have contributed to increased child behavior problems. Thus, this study examined behavior problems in 247 children aged 7 to 9 years during Ohio's shutdown period. It investigated whether differences in parent-reported child behavior problems were associated with concurrent parent distress during spring 2020 and/or children's social-emotional skills measured via teacher-reports from the previous year (spring 2019).
Associations between parent–child relationship, and children’s externalizing and internalizing symptoms, and lifestyle behaviors in China during the COVID-19 epidemic

AUTHOR(S)
Fanxing Du; Li He; Mark R. Francis (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: Scientific Reports
This study aimed to investigate associations between parent–child relationships, children’s externalizing and internalizing symptoms, and lifestyle responses to the COVID-19 epidemic, and it conducted an online survey of a random, representative sample of residents with children aged 3–17 years during mid-March 2020 in Wuhan and Shanghai, China. A total of 1655 parents and children were surveyed with a response rate of 80.1% in the survey.
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.

Self-reported changes in cannabis vaping among US adolescents and young adults early in the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Nhung Nguyen; Shivani Mathur Gaih; Bonnie Halpern-Felshe

Published: December 2021   Journal: Preventive Medicine Reports
Cannabis vaping may increase susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and related outcomes; however, little is known about the impact of the pandemic on cannabis vaping among US young populations. This study examined self-reported changes in cannabis vaping since the pandemic and factors associated with changes. A national, cross-sectional survey was conducted among 4,351 US adolescents and young adults (13–24 years old) in May 2020. Of those, 1,553 participants who reported ever vaping cannabis were included in the analytic sample.
Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on increasing the risks of children’s addiction to electronic games from a social work perspective.

AUTHOR(S)
Walaa Elsayed

Published: December 2021   Journal: Heliyon
Children are among the social groups most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because they have found themselves forced to stay at home, far from their schoolmates, their friends, and far from all the activities they used to do before the pandemic. so, it was their only refuge for recreation during their stay in Home is staying in front of the screens of tablets, smartphones, and computers to play electronic games for long hours, and there is no doubt that the sudden shift in the lifestyle of children during the Covid-19 pandemic had serious consequences and risks threatening their stability at all levels. In light of that, the current study aimed to determine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on increasing the social, psychological, behavioral, and health risks of children's addiction to electronic games from a social work perspective. This study falls under the type of descriptive-analytical studies that are based on describing the reality of the problem under study. The study sample included 289 children in the age group 6 -17 years in the first grade to the twelfth grade at school.
Community rapid assessment on COVID-19 end line report: behavioural findings and insights from 8 Eastern and Southern African countries
Institution: *UNICEF
Published: November 2021

The UNICEF Evaluation Office, in collaboration with Communication for Development (C4D) section in the UNICEF Programme Group and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, developed the Community Rapid Assessment (CRA) exercise as a way to measure the protective practices, health-seeking behaviours, coping strategies and emerging needs of individuals and households in relation to COVID-19. The primary objective was to provide UNICEF country offices valuable data to strengthen the evidence base and inform country-level programming in response to the pandemic. The CRA is also intended to contribute to UNICEF’s overall analytical agenda on COVID in an effort to better position this type work in the overall corporate efforts. Its findings have thus far provided a rich and much-needed picture of the behavioural component of the outbreak at the individual and community levels. In making use of time-series data – that is, the longitudinal data repeatedly captured over several waves of data collection – the CRA has also provided further opportunities to examine country- and region-specific trends over time. And because the CRA is a real-time exercise, analysis, visualization and interpretation of findings are already being used in several country-level fora to guide program changes. The long-term vision is to embed capacity for similar surveys within government data systems at the country level. This report presents early findings and insights from eight countries in Eastern and Southern Africa – namely Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan and Uganda.

The impact of COVID-19 on preschool-aged children’s movement behaviors in Hong Kong: a longitudinal analysis of accelerometer-measured data

AUTHOR(S)
Johan Y. Y. Ng; Qing He; Kar Hau Chong (et al.)

Published: November 2021   Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many preschool-aged children were forced to remain indoors due to social distancing measures and school closures. This study examined how children’s movement behaviors (sedentary behaviors, physical activity, and sleep) were affected by the pandemic. Children’s (N = 25, age = 4.4 years, SD = 0.3) movement behaviors were measured before and after the COVID outbreak, respectively. Data collected using accelerometers were analyzed using compositional data analyses. A significant change in the overall time-use composition (F = 5.89, p = 0.002) was found. Results suggested that children spent more time sleeping (8% increase) and in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (16% increase), with less time spent in sedentary behaviors (9% decrease). However, parent reports suggested that children were less active and had more screen time. In conclusion, the current evidence suggests that children’s physical activity is not negatively impacted by the pandemic.
Changes to the home food environment and parent feeding practices during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative exploration

AUTHOR(S)
Amanda Trofholz; Derek Hersch; Kristin Norderud (et al.)

Published: November 2021   Journal: Appetite
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about many changes that potentially altered the home food environment, which has been associated with child eating patterns and dietary intake. There is also some evidence that changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with health behaviors in children, such as an increased intake of high-calorie snack food. The current study aimed to more deeply understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the home food environment of meal and snack time routines and parent feeding practices within families of young children. Data for this study are taken from the Kids EAT! Study, a racially/ethnically diverse cohort of families with 2–5 year old children. Qualitative interviews were conducted by phone and video conference with mothers (n = 25) during August/September 2020 and were coded using a hybrid deductive/inductive analysis approach.
Feeding behaviour and lifestyle of children and adolescents one year after lockdown by the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile

AUTHOR(S)
Edson Bustos-Arriagada; Sergio Fuentealba-Urra; Karina Etchegaray-Armijo (et al.)

Published: November 2021   Journal: Nutrients
Lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced feeding behaviour and lifestyle in children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to analyse feeding behaviour and lifestyle in children and adolescents one year after lockdown by the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile. In this cross-sectional study an online survey was implemented in 1083 parents and caregivers regarding their children’s feeding behaviour and lifestyle and sociodemographic background. The results showed that “eat breakfast daily” (89.2%), “not overnight food intake” (69.9%) and “not fast-food intake” (66.0%) were the most frequent reported feeding behaviours, particularly in pre-school children. Respondents declaring healthy feeding behaviours and lifestyle were 23.4 and 23.7%, respectively, with no significant differences by sex. In pre-school children, families with three or fewer members and parents or caregivers with an undergraduate or postgraduate degree reported a significantly better feeding behaviour and lifestyle compared to families with more than three members and parents or caregivers without an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. In conclusion, the pandemic lockdown had a negative impact in lifestyle in children and particularly in adolescents. Healthier feeding behaviour was associated with fewer family members and parents or caregivers with at least an undergraduate degree.
Children and adolescents’ behavioral patterns in response to escalating COVID-19 restriction reveal sex and age differences

AUTHOR(S)
Mira Paulsen; Anna Zychlinsky Scharff; Kristof de Cassan (et al.)

Published: November 2021   Journal: Journal of Adolescent Health

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic affects students in a myriad of different ways. Our prospective, longitudinal study in a cohort of students in Hannover, Germany explores behavioral patterns during escalating COVID-19 restrictions. 777 students between the age of 9 and 20 were assessed for their activity engagement, travel patterns and self-assessed compliance with protective recommendations at six time points between June 2020 and June 2021 (3564 observations) and were monitored for SARS-CoV-2 infection by nasal swab PCR and serum antibody titers.

Needs of children and families during Spring 2020 COVID-19 school closures: findings from a national survey

AUTHOR(S)
Kate R. Watson; Ron Avi Astor; Rami Benbenishty (et al.)

Published: November 2021   Journal: Social Work
Despite extensive reports during the COVID-19 pandemic of the academic challenges facing students, and the effects of online learning on academic achievements, we have little information regarding the needs and difficulties of K–12 students and their families from a social work perspective. The present article shares findings from a nationwide survey of 1,275 school social workers (SSWs) reporting on their clients—schools, children, and families—during the spring 2020 COVID-19 school closures. SSWs indicated that the children and families they served had significant unmet basic needs, including for food, healthcare, and housing. Poverty and mental health compounded pandemic difficulties, which were associated with the sociodemographic makeup of schools. Student engagement in social work services during the closures was significantly lower than prepandemic levels, generally due to unmet material needs. Several policy and practice implications arise from these findings, including a need for additional services for students and families, a plan to address structural inequities in our schools and communities, coordinated outreach to reengage missing students, and recognition of the strong work being done by school staff coupled with a need for additional supports and resources to combat persistent inequality.
The role of COVID-19 fears and related behaviors in understanding daily adolescent health behaviors during the pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Caroline Cummings; Tori Humiston; Laura B. Cohen

Published: November 2021   Journal: Journal of Health Psychology
This study examined the prospective associations of COVID-19 fears and behavior, and daily physical activity and dysregulated eating. Adolescents (N = 31) aged 11–17 completed selected subscales of the Fear of Illness and Virus Evaluation and completed a 7-day health behavior diary. Greater fear of contamination was associated with lower daily physical activity. In contrast, greater COVID-19 precautionary behavior was associated with greater daily physical activity. COVID-19 fears and precautionary behaviors have differential associations with health promoting behavior engagement. Future studies should explore the mechanisms underlying these links to guide adaptation of health behavior interventions for this unique cohort.
Physical activity and sedentary behaviour among children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities during the COVID-19 lockdown in China

AUTHOR(S)
Y. Q. Yuan; J. N. Ding; N. Bi (et al.)

Published: November 2021   Journal: Journal of Intellectual Disability Research

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, preliminary research has reported a significant decline in physical activity (PA) and an increase in sedentary behaviour (SB) among typically developed children and adolescents. Limited research has looked at the current situation of PA and SB during this pandemic among children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities (ID). This study investigated the situations about PA and SB among school-aged children and adolescents with ID on China's mainland during the COVID-19 outbreak. In total, 837 parents of children and adolescents (ages 6–18 years) with ID from 15 special education schools of Shandong Province in China were recruited through convenience sampling in the study. Parents reported PA and SB among children and adolescents with ID through the Children's Leisure Activities Study Survey-Chinese version (CLASS-C) online questionnaires.

‘They're like little police’: Australian parents' perceptions of their children's awareness of drinking during COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Megan Cook; Sandra Kuntsche; Amy Pennay

Published: November 2021   Journal: Drug and Alcohol Review

As a result of COVID-19 and associated lockdown restrictions, children may have been exposed to more home-based alcohol consumption and parents' drinking practices. This paper explores Australian parents' perceptions of their children's awareness of drinking and their reflections on the impact of COVID-19 on children's exposure and acquisition of alcohol-related knowledge. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 30 parents and carers of children aged four to 12 years from across Australia. Participants described their family lives, the role of alcohol, any changes in alcohol and family dynamics experienced because of COVID-19 and their children's exposure and knowledge of alcohol before and during their experience of COVID-19. Using social learning theory as a guiding framework, transcripts were analysed to identify relevant themes.

151 - 165 of 300

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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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.