Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers around the world have made efforts to assess its impact on youth mental health; however, the breadth of this topic has impeded a clear assessment of pandemic outcomes. This study aimed to address this gap by reviewing changes in youth (age ≤ 25) mental health, psychological wellbeing, substance use, and the use or delivery of relevant services during the pandemic. PubMed and Embase were searched in May 2021 to conduct a rapid review of the literature.

COVID-19 restrictions and the instructions to stay at home (SaH) may have had an impact on child behavior including physical activity (PA) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Switzerland. Therefore, we investigated PA and HRQoL during and after the SaH in 57 Swiss school children aged 7 to 12 years (M = 10.44; SD = 1.34). PA was measured using accelerometry (Actigraph GT3X) and HRQoL using the Kid-KINDLR questionnaire. During and post data was compared using paired sample t-tests. Independent t-tests were used to compare the HRQoL of physically active children with non-physically active children. PA in light (d = −0.56), moderate (d = −0.44), moderate-to-vigorous (d = −0.28) as well as overall HRQoL (d = −0.66), psychological well-being (d = −0.48), self-esteem (d = −0.39), friends (d = −0.70) and everyday functioning (d = −0.44), were significantly lower during SaH than afterwards.

To comprehensively understand the Chinese family relationships (i.e., marital relationship, parent–child relationship, sibling relationship, and grandparent–grandchild relationship) during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study investigated the changes of family relationships and the individual differences related to knowledge of the COVID-19, personality traits (i.e., neuroticism and optimism), and emotional characteristics (i.e., emotion regulation and negative emotional reactions). From March 1 to April 5, 2020, 8821 participants were involved, including 3995 teenagers, 1146 unmarried young adults, 3571 married adults, and 109 grandparents.

As alcohol is often consumed for social purposes, this study aimed to explore how restrictions during the first Danish COVID-19 lockdown affected the alcohol use among adolescents aged 15-20. In May 2020, 11,596 15- to 20-year-olds from two subpopulations answered a survey regarding their alcohol use and social life, as well as changes to these, during the Danish lockdown. Using survey data from all participants, this study performed a multinomial logistic regression to assess the association between determinants of alcohol use and perceived change in alcohol use during the Danish lockdown. It used longitudinal data from one subpopulation (n=1869) to perform negative binomial regressions exploring changes in frequency of alcohol use from 2019 to 2020.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed the way families live, interact, and connect with others, resulting in higher levels of stress for many teenagers who struggle with the ongoing uncertainty and disrupted school and family life. The current study examined the psychosocial factors that influence the capacity of adolescents to grow through the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample included 404 secondary school students ranging in age from 11 to 18 (M = 14.75, SD = 1.59; 50.2% female, 46.8% male, and 3% non-/other gendered or declined to answer) from an independent high school in Australia. Data were collected from a battery of questionnaires that assessed strength-based parenting (SBP) and the effect of three psychosocial factors (positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and school belonging) on stress-related growth.

This review of the literature aims to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown on teenagers’ mental health. It distinguishes two groups: adolescents who had already been diagnosed with a mental disorder and the general population of adolescents.

The adverse effects of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are not limited to the related infectious disease. In children and adolescents, serious risks due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are also related to its indirect effects. These include an unbalanced diet with an increased risk of weight excess or nutritional deficiencies, increased sedentary lifestyle, lack of schooling, social isolation, and impaired mental health.  Pediatricians should be aware of the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s diet, physical mental health and advise the families according to their nutritional needs and financial resources. Moreover, the lack of a targeted therapy able to offer protection against the deleterious effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection should require a greater effort by scientific societies to find a more effective prevention strategy. In this context, much interest should be given to nutritional support, able to contrast malnutrition and to stimulate the immune system.

This study develops and investigates the changes in anxiety symptoms and quality of life (QoL) among participants of the online Strength-informed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (SACT) across three tests. A small-scale, quasi-experiment with no control group was conducted. Repeated-measures analysis was employed to assess the changes of the three tests, which were the pre-experimental, post-test, and 3-month follow-up test. A total of 47 adolescents (ages 10–12) completed the 45-min intervention that lasted 10 weeks.

Despite the potential for COVID-19 infection control–related events to have an effect on child well-being, comprehensive assessments of postlockdown changes and persistent outcomes are lacking. This paper aims to survey the extent of COVID-19 lockdown–related lifestyle changes, their differences by child age and family socioeconomic status, and the potential association with child adiposity 1 year after lockdown.  A self-administered, electronic survey was introduced to 2 ongoing child cohorts (the Singapore Preconception Study of Long-term Maternal and Child Outcomes [S-PRESTO] cohort of preschool children aged 1-4.5 years and the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes [GUSTO] cohort of primary school children aged 9-10.7 years) from July 8, 2020, to September 5, 2020, which was 1 to 3 months after the end of strict universal movement restrictions (duration of 73 days ending on June 19, 2020). All active participants from S-PRESTO and GUSTO, 2 population-based, longitudinal, parent-offspring cohorts in Singapore, were invited to participate and monitored through June 15, 2021.

The ramifications of COVID-19 restrictions might accelerate the already rising proportion of children with overweight or obesity. This study aimed to assess the association between COVID-19 restrictions and changes in body mass index (BMI) and the proportion of children with overweight or obesity. Cohort study with baseline measurements in September 2019 (prior to COVID-19 restrictions) and follow-up in June 2020, September 2020, and March 2021 at 12 primary schools in Austria. The height and weight of 738 children aged 7 to 10 years were measured and age- and sex-specific national and international standardized values were calculated. Changes over time were analysed by analysis of variance.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in pornography use has been reported based on cross-sectional findings, raising concerns about associated adverse outcomes, such as problematic pornography use (PPU). The aims of the present study were to document potential changes in adolescents’ pornography use frequency, motivations, and PPU before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of an ongoing study on adolescents’ sexual health, we used a large sample (NTime 1 = 1771; 47.6% girls, Mage = 15.42 years, SD = 0.59) to examine changes from baseline (before the COVID-19 pandemic) to one year later (during the COVID-19 pandemic) in adolescents’ self-reported pornography use frequency, motivations, and PPU, using latent change models and examining potential gender differences.

Young children spend a lot of time at home, yet there is little empirical research on how they spend that time and how it relates to developmental outcomes. Prior research suggests less-structured time—where children practice making choices and setting goals—may develop self-directed executive function in 6-year-olds. But less-structured time may be related to executive function for other reasons—for example, because it provides opportunities to acquire conceptual knowledge relevant to using executive function on tasks. This study thus tested the possibility that less-structured time is also related to younger children's externally cued executive function. In this remote online study, caregivers of 93 3- to 5-year-olds indicated the amount of time their child was typically spending in various activities while at home during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Activities were categorized as structured (primarily lessons with specific goals defined by adults or an app), less-structured (wide range of activities permitting choice and interaction with caregiver), passive (e.g., watching TV or videos), and primarily physical (e.g., bike riding).

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 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.