Logo UNICEF Innocenti
Office of Research-Innocenti
menu icon

Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

RESULTS:   316     SORT BY:

ADVANCED SEARCH:

Select one or more filter options and click search below.

PUBLICATION DATE:
UNICEF Innocenti Publication
UNICEF Publication
Open Access
JOURNAL ACCESS FOR UNICEF STAFF CONTACT US
1 - 15 of 316
Gender roles, parenthood, and the ethics of care in pandemic media narratives pre- and post-Covid-19

AUTHOR(S)
Raffaella Baccolini; Chiara Xausa

Published: January 2023   Journal: European Journal of English Studies
Crises have always brought along transformations in gender identities, roles, and relations: while much has changed in Western culture regarding the role of women and notions of masculinity are also challenged, efforts to control female roles, bodies, and sexualities persist. For example, Susan Faludi’s The Terror Dream has described the post-9/11 age as an era of reconstituted “traditional” manhood, redomesticated femininity and nuclear family “togetherness.” The question that lies at the basis of this paper is whether – and if so, how –science fiction cinema continues to respond to moments of crisis and vulnerability through the old myth of protective manhood and feminine weakness. By identifying two cases of insecurity – climate change and the coronavirus pandemic – this study analyses a recent film (Bird Box, 2018) and two TV series on pandemic outbreaks from the US (Sweet Tooth, 2021) and Italy (Anna, 2021). All three works break new ground – though not devoid of limits – about family structures and parental care: while Bird Box proposes a reversal of gender roles, Anna elaborates on the notion of motherhood by presenting unconventional models of mothering; in Sweet Tooth, the ethics of care is extended to the relationship between humans, animals, and the endangered environment.
A look at COVID-19 and transgender youth through a psychoanalytic lens

AUTHOR(S)
Diane Ehrensaft

Published: January 2023   Journal: Psychoanalytic Psychology.
The arrival of COVID-19 pandemic led to a much-publicized mental health crisis for American youth. A subgroup of those youth particularly affected were transgender and gender diverse (TGD) children and adolescents. Yet, a psychoanalytic eye cast on these youth revealed not a crisis, but a dialectic: from a relational and intrapsychic perspective, it was the best of times and the worst of times for TGD young people. This article applies Winnicott’s concepts of mirroring and the author’s constructs of the true gender self, false gender self, and gender creativity to information gleaned from survey studies and clinical observation. These data were then used to analyze why some TGD children and adolescents experienced the shutdown phase of the pandemic as an opportunity to consolidate their gender self, while others experienced the shutdown as a significant environmental impingement and threat to their gender self and overall well-being.
Who is doing the chores and childcare in dual-earner couples during the COVID-19 era of working from home?

AUTHOR(S)
Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia; Victoria Vernon

Published: January 2023   Journal: Review of Economics of the Household
In 2020–21, parents’ work-from-home days increased three-and-a-half-fold following the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns compared to 2015–19. At the same time, many schools offered virtual classrooms and daycares closed, increasing the demand for household-provided childcare. Using weekday workday time diaries from American Time Use Survey and looking at parents in dual-earner couples, this study examines parents’ time allocated to paid work, chores, and childcare in the COVID-19 era by the couple’s joint work location arrangements. It determines the work location of the respondent directly from their diary and predicts the partner’s work-from-home status.
Anxiety, COVID-19 risk, and LGBTQ+ youth's participation in an affirming summer camp

AUTHOR(S)
Traci K. Gillig; Alicia Booth; Leticia Couto

Published: January 2023   Journal: Journal of LGBT Youth
Rising levels of generalized anxiety among LGBTQ+ youth during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic suggest a need for understanding effective interventions for reducing anxiety, as well as factors influencing youth’s risk perceptions and trust pertaining to mental health-focused programming. The current survey-based study captures generalized anxiety, COVID-19 risk perceptions, and trust in a camp organization among 181 youth ages 12 to 18 who participated in an overnight camp for young LGBTQ+ people.
LGBTQ2S+ youth perspectives on mental healthcare provider bias, standards of care, and accountability

AUTHOR(S)
Michael Chaiton; Rachel Thorburn; Megan Sutton (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Youth
This study explores the experiences of LGBTQ2S+ youth while accessing mental health and substance use care services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a series of facilitated virtual meetings, 33 LGBTQ2S+ youth from across Ontario participated in collaborative activities to identify barriers they have experienced when accessing mental health services, as well as potential solutions to these barriers. Discussions were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis.
Parents' work arrangements and gendered time use during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Thomas Lyttelton; Emma Zang; Kelly Musick

Published: December 2022   Journal: Journal of Marriage and Family

This study uses time diaries to examine how parents' work arrangements shaped their time use at home and work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic transformed home and work life for parents, disrupting employment and childcare. The shift to work from home offered more flexibility to manage increased care burdens, but the lack of separation between work and family also likely contributed to more challenging work environments, especially among mothers. This study relies on the 2017–2020 American Time Use Survey and matching to estimate changes in time use among parents working from home and on site in the pandemic relative to comparable parents prior to the pandemic.

A critical review on integration of virtual labs to enhance access to stem education for girls during and post Covid-19

AUTHOR(S)
Amos Omamo; Sarah Wandili; Stephen Mutua (et al.)

Published: December 2022   Journal: African Journal of Science, Technology and Social Sciences,
Practical activities are extremely important in teaching sciences as they aid the students in comprehending scientific concepts through participatory learning. However, most Kenyan public schools lack well equipped laboratories. Additionally, the diminishing resources resulting from post-COVID effects offer no beam of hope. Disruption from COVID also poses critical challenges of handling physical devices in times of such pandemics. To address this, the Integration of Virtual Labs to Enhance STEM Education for Girls (IVLESTEG) project was conceptualized to enhance girl’s access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) subjects in Kenyan secondary schools. The aim of this research study was to critically appraise the current technology models in relation  to girls’ access to STEM education with the overall objective of exploring the potential of e-learning in promoting participation of female students in STEM subjects in Kenya.
Giving a lot of ourselves: How mother leaders in higher education experienced parenting and leading during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Laura Boche

Published: December 2022   Journal: Frontiers in Education
This qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis explored the lived experience of mother executive administrators in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing the philosophical underpinnings of the Heideggerian phenomenological approach, the following research question guided this study: What are the lived experiences of mother executive administrators in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic? Participants included nine self-identified mother executive administrators from one Midwest state at a variety of institution types and locations within the state. Data collection involved two focus groups and individual interviews with all nine participants. After data analysis, three recurrent themes emerged from the data: (1) Burnout and Exhaustion, (2) Never Enough: Responsibility Generated Feelings of Guilt, and (3) Receiving Support: Importance of Gender, Family Role, and Agency.
The category is "Pandemic queer": reading, connecting, and reimagining literacy with LGBTQ+ youth in the age of COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Shea Wesley Martin; Henry “Cody” Miller

Published: December 2022   Journal: Radical Teacher
The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the ensuing lockdown and political turmoil, ruptured many young people’s experiences and well-being, particularly students who face additional marginalization due to systemic oppression. A national survey conducted by the Trevor Project (2021) found that nearly 70% of LGBTQ youth noted that their health was “poor” most or all of the time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors contributing to this deterioration include LGBTQ youth being isolated from the supportive communities formed at school, lacking access to social services provided by schools, and being quarantined with family members who were unsupportive (Cohen, 2021; Valencia, 2020). These fissures in support and resource structures curtailed potentially affirming and integral education, social, and emotional experiences, particularly for LGBTQ youth who thrived in traditional schooling settings. However, it is also important to note that even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools were not idealized institutions for LGBTQ youth. K-12 schools, situated in the broader socio-political landscape of the United States, are bastions of homo-, trans-, and queerphobia (Mayo, 2014). Still, many LGBTQ young people employed resilience and ingenuity to create affirming and loving social circles, which were thus interrupted by restrictions, trauma, and isolation during the pandemic. This article details how  a community of readers who worked to analyze young adult literature was structured through intersectional and anti-oppressive lenses.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on female academics with young children in South Africa

AUTHOR(S)
Samantha Kriger; Cyrill Walters; Armand Bam (et al.)

Published: December 2022   Journal: SOTL in the South
Against the backdrop of an increase in research on the effects of COVID-19, this article uses the analysis of survey data of female academics from the 26 higher education institutions in South Africa to identify how female academics with young children coped with academic output during the pandemic-enforced lockdown. A growing body of research documents the influence of children and childcare on the careers of female academics. In this article, we see how female academics who stayed at home during the enforced lockdown period negotiated childcare and home-schooling, and how the lockdown influenced their academic output. An online survey questionnaire was administered, consisting of 12 Likert-scale questions followed by an open-ended section that solicited a narrative account of academic work and home life during the lockdown period. Data on female academics with children under the age of six years was extracted for this study. The quantitative and qualitative data that emerged from our study of 2,018 women academics at 26 universities across South Africa describes how academic mothers felt, and how they struggled to complete the academic work required by their educational institutions. Such academic work directly influences future career prospects. This study highlights the influence that the presence of young children in the home, the pressures of home-schooling, traditional gender roles, and household responsibilities have on the academic careers of women.
Between a rock and a hard place: COVID concerns and partnered U.S. mothers' employment during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Daniel L. Carlson; Priya Fielding-Singh; Richard J. Petts (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
Shutdowns of in-person school and childcare in spring 2020 in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic were associated with substantial reductions in mothers’ labor force participation (LFP). By fall 2020, in-person school and daycare were more widely available, but mothers’ LFP remained as low as it was in spring. Coincidently, by fall 2020, daily COVID deaths had also began to peak. Using unique panel survey data from partnered U.S. mothers (n = 263), the authors use structural equation modeling to analyze how mothers’ concerns over COVID shaped their LFP in fall 2020. Findings show that mothers’ COVID concerns were associated with reduced LFP via children’s time at home, perceived stress, and remote work. Concerned mothers were more likely to keep children home, but this resulted in less paid work likely vis-à-vis work-family conflicts.
Boys do cry: age and gender differences in psycho-physiological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

AUTHOR(S)
Giulia M. Dotti Sani; Francesco Molteni; Simone Sarti (et al.)

Published: November 2022   Journal: Applied Research in Quality of Life
This article contributes to the quality of life literature by investigating gender and age gaps in psycho-physiological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Specifically, it investigates whether women experienced higher levels of distress than men, and if such gap can be explained by a greater negative reaction of women in the experience of a negative COVID-19 related event, such as the illness or death of a relative. Moreover, it explores whether age moderated or amplified the effect of a negative event on distress among women and men. To do so it relies on an ad hoc survey carried out between April 2020 and June 2021 in Italy, the first European country to be hit by the pandemic.
Gender differences in epidemic everyday scenarios: an exploratory study of family life in Slovenia

AUTHOR(S)
Alenka Švab; Tanja Oblak Črnič

Published: November 2022   Journal: Social Inclusion
The article focuses on the changed dynamics of family life due to the first wave of Covid-19—starting in the spring of 2020—and the consequent longstanding social lockdown in the fall of 2020. It employs the concept of “forced nuclearisation” to describe the process that required a rapid reorganisation of otherwise self-evident and established social patterns and relationships, above all new adjustments of care relations both inside and outside the private sphere. The focus is on new demands in the intertwined spheres of work, school, and family obligations, especially because the private sphere has been assigned several additional functions, otherwise carried out by educational and daycare institutions. Based on an extensive dataset from a quantitative exploratory online survey conducted in two time periods, first in April 2020 and then in October 2020, this article discusses, from a comparative perspective and with a focus on gender inequalities, the main changes in practices and everyday routines such as shopping, housework, childcare, work obligations, and caring for other family members. The research aimed to identify the most obvious distinctions in family scenarios and, in particular, to point to the main social inequalities and potentially vulnerable groups within the population, who faced the forced and unexpected nuclearisation of everyday life.
COVID-19, income and gender wage gap: evidence from the China family panel studies (CFPS) 2014 to 2020

AUTHOR(S)
Haojian Dui

Published: November 2022   Journal: Frontiers in Public Health
COVID-19 has a ubiquitous impact on human society and a significant impact on the labor market. This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on income and its gender differences based on Generalized Difference-in-Differences using publicly available national micro-tracking survey data (CFPS 2014–2020) for the first time.
Troubling gender norms on Mumsnet: working from home and parenting during the UK's first COVID lockdown

AUTHOR(S)
Karen Maria Handley

Published: November 2022   Journal: Gender, Work & Organization
This article examines the troubling of gender norms that unfolded on the social networking site, Mumsnet, at the beginning of the UK's first lockdown response to the COVID pandemic. Using an analysis of 7144 contributions which included the acronym ‘WFH’ (=working from home), posted from March 1, 2020 to April 5, 2020, the article examines how Mumsnet members talked about working from home while caring for toddlers and home-schooled children. Mumsnet discussions about everyday moral dilemmas create a discursive space for examining the situated rationalities and normative judgments that shape expectations of how to behave as a working parent. Drawing on post-structuralist discourse theory, the article shows how Mumsnet contributors generated alternative sub-categorizations of ‘good mums’, and destabilized discourse assumptions of intensive motherhood, such as always ‘being there’ for their children, thereby ‘working the weakness in the norms’ (Butler, 1993) and creating potential for change.
1 - 15 of 316

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.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DATABASE

Subscribe to updates on new research about COVID-19 & children

SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Share:

facebook twitter linkedin google+ reddit print email
Article Article

Check our quarterly thematic digests on children and COVID-19

Each quarterly thematic digest features the latest evidence drawn from the Children and COVID-19 Research Library on a particular topic of interest.
Campaign Campaign

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.