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Children make up 50% of those affected in humanitarian crises and are disproportionately impacted by conflict and crisis. Throughout 2020 and 2021, COVID-19, conflict and climate change have been impacting children at unprecedented scale, putting them at risk and driving displacement, poverty and violence. Whilst funding for child protection is increasing, child protection consistently remains one of the most underfunded sectors in humanitarian action and funds not meeting increasing needs. Closing this gap will require collective action to change the way we think about children’s protection and its centrality to crisis response. This report highlights key areas associated with funding for child protection in humanitarian crises, including both cluster and refugee responses in 2020. A snapshot is also given for 2021 with data available as of October 2021
AUTHOR(S) Winnie W. Y. Tso; Ko Ling Chan; Tatia M. C. Lee (et al.)
Children with special educational needs (SEN) are more vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic with risk of poor mental wellbeing and child maltreatment. To examine the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of children with SEN and their maltreatment risk. 417 children with SEN studying at special schools and 25,427 children with typical development (TD) studying at mainstream schools completed an online survey in April 2020 in Hong Kong during school closures due to COVID-19.
AUTHOR(S) Yuan He; Robin Ortiz; Rachel Kishton (et al.)
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated multiple stressors for caregivers of children in the United States, raising concern for increased family conflict, harsh parenting, and child maltreatment. Little is known regarding children's perceptions and experiences of caregiver stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to examine how children and adolescents identify and experience caregiver stress during the early COVID-19 pandemic. It analyzed 105 de-identified helpline text and online chat transcripts from children under age 18 who submitted inquiries to the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline from March to June of 2020, with COVID-19 as a presenting issue. Inductive, thematic analysis was used to identify how child helpline users: 1) perceived and experienced drivers of caregiver stress and 2) used words to describe manifestations of caregiver stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AUTHOR(S) Lindsey Rose Bullinger; Stevan Marcus; Katherine Reuben (et al.)
AUTHOR(S) Katherine A. Hails; Rachel A. Petts; Cody A. Hostutler (et al.)
Heightened familial stress and distress during the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to increased negative parenting practices, particularly for parents with substantial adverse childhood experiences (ACES). To determine whether families' COVID-19-related distress is associated with young children's emotional/behavioral functioning via negative parenting, and whether these relationships vary based on parents' ACEs. Participants were 267 parents of children ages 1.5–5 years recruited from five primary care sites across the United States. Participants completed internet questionnaires including measures of demographics, parent ACES, negative parenting, parent mental health, and COVID-19 distress. We used regression analyses to test a moderated mediation model in which the relationship between COVID-19 distress and child emotional/behavioral problems is mediated by negative parenting, and both the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 distress on child emotional/behavioral problems is moderated by parents' ACEs.
AUTHOR(S) Margaret C. Stevenson; Cynthia T. Schaefer; Vaishnavi M. Ravipati (et al.)
Nurses who are also parents may be at risk not only for professional compassion fatigue, but also parental burnout – a reliable and valid predictor of child abuse and neglect. In support, recent research reveals that parents' COVID-19 related stressors predicted elevated potential for child abuse (Katz and Fallon, 2021). This study explored the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on nurses' parental burnout, child abuse, and child neglect, as mediated by compassion fatigue (i.e., a combination of job burnout and secondary traumatic stress). Participants were 244 nurses (M age = 32.4; 87% female) who were parents of young children (age 12 or under) recruited via chain referral sampling.
AUTHOR(S) Young Eun Kim
Risk factors for child maltreatment have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially due to economic downfalls leading to parental job losses and poor mental health. This study aimed to examine the association between child maltreatment and unemployment rate in the Republic of Korea. Nationally representative data at the province level were used. The monthly excess number of hotline calls related to child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic was estimated for each province. Fixed effects regressions was used to examine the relationship between the excess number of hotline calls and unemployment rate.
AUTHOR(S) Ilan Katz; Sidnei Priolo-Filho; Carmit Katz (et al.)
A year has passed since COVID-19 began disrupting systems. Although children are not considered a risk population for the virus, there is accumulating knowledge regarding children's escalating risk for maltreatment during the pandemic. The current study is part of a larger initiative using an international platform to examine child maltreatment (CM) reports and child protective service (CPS) responses in various countries. The first data collection, which included a comparison between eight countries after the pandemic's first wave (March–June 2020), illustrated a worrisome picture regarding children's wellbeing. The current study presents the second wave of data across 12 regions via population data (Australia [New South Wales], Brazil, United States [California, Pennsylvania], Colombia, England, Germany, Israel, Japan, Canada [Ontario, Quebec], South Africa).
AUTHOR(S) Shane Warren; Christine Morley; Jo Clarke (et al.)
AUTHOR(S) Kelly M. Whaling; Alissa Der Sarkissian; Natalie Larez (et al.)
AUTHOR(S) Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan; Dana Lassri
There is little argument that COVID-19 is potentially highly stressful for many people, however, little research has broken down COVID-19-related distress into different aspects clustering together, and how these clusters differ in terms of the vulnerability of the individuals. The primary aim of the present study was to identify distinct profiles of individuals' reactions to COVID-19-related stress, and analyze potential differences and risk and protective factors associated with these profiles in relation to childhood abuse, psychopathology, and interpersonal relationships. Data was collected online among a convenience sample of 914 men and women in Israel. A Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) for estimating distinct profiles in people's COVID-19-related distress was applied. Next, profiles were compared in childhood abuse, psychopathology, perceived social support and relationship satisfaction.
AUTHOR(S) Veronica Renov; Lauren Risser; Rachel Berger (et al.)
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted children and young people experiencing child abuse and neglect. Child Protective Services (CPS) has played an important role in supporting children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Few studies to-date have evaluated the impact of the pandemic on CPS caseworkers and administrators in the United States. These interviews aim to explore CPS caseworkers' and administrators' experiences working and serving families during the pandemic.
AUTHOR(S) L. Massiot; E. Launay; J. Fleury (et al.)
This study aimed to describe the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown in France on the activity of a Child Advocacy Center. This cross-sectional, observational study included all children involved in the activity of the CAC during the first lockdown, from March 16 to May 10, 2020 and the next 3 months and the corresponding periods in 2018 and 2019. Cases were considered severe when a hospitalization, social alert and/or judicial report to the prosecutor was decided.
Released to coincide with the 75th anniversary of UNICEF’s creation in 1946, the report, “Reigniting Opportunities for Children in South Asia,” highlights the terrible price children are paying not only as a result of COVID-19 but due to the climate crisis and humanitarian disasters affecting the region. Such has been the impact on children’s education, health care, nutrition, and protection services that the hopes and futures of an entire generation are at risk. In developed countries, COVID-19 vaccination rates are steadily increasing, and wealthier economies are recovering. But in South Asia, the picture remains bleak. Just 30 per cent of people in South Asia are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, leaving families dangerously unprotected as new variants continue to emerge. While the region braces itself for future waves of the virus, more children and families are slipping into poverty.
AUTHOR(S) Alison Fogarty; Andi Jones; Monique Seymour (et al.)
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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