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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

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31 - 45 of 2543
The COVID-19 pandemic: implications for maternal mental health and early childhood development

AUTHOR(S)
Bonnie D. Kerker; Erica Willheim; J. Rebecca Weis (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: American Journal of Health Promotion
Women are particularly susceptible to mental health challenges during the perinatal period. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, much concern was raised about the impact that the associated isolation, uncertainty, grief, loss and economic upheaval would have on mental health. Women experienced a disproportionate amount of environmental strain during this time, including economic stress and challenges associated with being essential workers; stressors were perhaps most prevalent in communities of color and immigrant groups. For women who were pregnant during the height of the pandemic, it is clear that stress, anxiety, and depression were increased due to changes in medical care and decreases in social support. Increased mental health challenges in the perinatal period have been shown to impact social-emotional, cognitive and behavioral health in infants and children, so the potential consequences of the COVID-19 era are great. This paper discusses these potential impacts and describes important pathways for future research.
Disruption, slowness, and collective effervescence: children's perspectives on COVID-19 lockdowns

AUTHOR(S)
Tobia Fattore; Gabrielle Drake; Jan Falloon (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice
The COVID-19 pandemic represented not only a health crisis, but a social crisis for children, one that has disrupted notions of what a good childhood is. However, the longer-term implications of the pandemic are still to be seen, for children, their families and communities. This article is concerned with what these ongoing changes may be, based on a qualitative multi-stage study that asks children about their experiences of well-being before the pandemic, during lockdowns and post-COVID-19 lockdowns. This included asking seven children in online semi-structured interviews about what aspects of life brought on by COVID-19 restrictions they would like to see continue post-lockdown.
Coping with the COVID-19 pandemic: comparative case study of coping and resilience in children from different educational contexts in Colombia

AUTHOR(S)
Maria Fernanda Gonzalez Puerto; Ingrid Anzelin; Sebastian Calixto (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Continuity in Education
In 2020, humanity experienced one of the most complex situations in history: The COVID-19 pandemic, which caused significant social, economic, and educational consequences. Nevertheless, countries and people generally survived. Why? Resilience and the ability to cope are fundamental elements in human, community, and national survival. This study compared the situations experienced by six children from different social and educational backgrounds in Colombia during the COVID 19 pandemic using a collective analysis of cases. Interviews with children’s families, as well as observations of the participants and a narrative instrument from the BASIC Ph resiliency model (Lahad, 2016) are used to describe the context, the promoting factors of resilience, and the so-called coping “channels” of each case.
Cite this research | Open access | Vol.: 4 | Issue: 1 | No. of pages: 22 | Language: English | Topics: Health, Mental Health | Tags: child health, child mental health, COVID-19 response, lockdown, resiliency, social distance | Countries: Colombia
Evaluating the effectiveness of the Supportive Parenting App on parental outcomes: randomized controlled trial

AUTHOR(S)
Shefaly Shorey; Evelyn Law; Thilagamangai (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Adjusting to new or additional parenting responsibilities increases stress and affects parental well-being. Existing research has highlighted both parents’ desire to receive more support. It has also been found that receiving sufficient social support enhances parenting outcomes. With the increasing popularity of mobile health apps, a Supportive Parenting App (SPA) intervention was developed to fulfill the support needs of parents during the perinatal period.
 This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the SPA on parental outcomes during the perinatal period.

Psychosocial work stress and parent-child bonding during the COVID-19 pandemic: clarifying the role of parental symptoms of depression and aggressiveness

AUTHOR(S)
Mirjam I. Koerber; Judith T. Mack; Lara Seefeld (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: BMC Public Health

Parental work stress and impaired mental health seem to have intensified during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Both can have a negative impact on parent-child bonding: psychosocial work stress in the course of a spillover effect from work to family and symptoms of impaired mental health as part of a crossover effect from parent to child. This potentially affects the child’s development in the long term. This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between psychosocial work stress and parent-child bonding during the early COVID-19 pandemic (May–June 2020). Symptoms of depression and aggressiveness were considered as mediators of this relationship. The sample consisted of employees in Eastern Germany (n = 380; 42.9% mothers, 57.1% fathers), aged 24–55 years, with children aged 0–36 months.

The impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women and children: recommendations for health promotion

AUTHOR(S)
Whitney Perkins Witt; Nicole Harlaar; Ashley Palmer (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: American Journal of Health Promotion
COVID-19 continues to have severe repercussions on children and pregnant women. The repercussions include not only the direct impact of COVID-19 (ie, children getting infected by COVID-19) but also indirect impacts (eg, safeguarding from child maltreatment, obesogenic behaviors, language and socioemotional development, educational consequences [eg, interrupted learning]; social isolation; mental health; behavioral health [eg, increased substance use in adolescence]; health and economic impact of COVID-19 on caregivers and family relationships. It has also shed light on long-standing structural and socioeconomic issues, including equity in nutrition and food security, housing, childcare, and internet access. Using a socioecological, life course, and population health approach, this study discusses the implications for pregnant women and children’s health and well-being and give recommendations for mitigating the short and long-term deleterious impact COVID- 19 on women, children, and their families.
Autistic young people's experiences of remote psychological interventions during COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Lucy Adams; Nicoletta Adamo; Matthew J. Hollocks (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Autism
Telepsychiatry has been rapidly adopted to help control the spread of coronavirus. Clinicians have raised concerns over this for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The remote delivery of psychological interventions in particular requires further attention as their in-person delivery has autism spectrum disorder–associated challenges which overlap with the challenges of telepsychiatry broadly (i.e. beyond autism spectrum disorder). Autistic service-users (aged 15–18 years, n = 6) and clinicians working with this client group (n = 8) were therefore interviewed about their experience of remote psychological interventions during the pandemic. The sample size was determined using preregistered thematic saturation calculations. Thematic analysis of responses identified challenges/barriers, benefits, facilitators, and factors perceived to cause variability in experiences of remote delivery.
A mixed-method study on adolescents' well-being during the COVID-19 syndemic emergency

AUTHOR(S)
Alessandro Pepe; Eleonora Farina

Published: January 2023   Journal: Scientific Reports volume
This study set out to investigate adolescents’ levels of perceived well-being and to map how they went about caring for their well-being during the COVID-19 syndemic. Participants were 229 Italian adolescent high school students (48.9% males, mean age = 16.64). The research design was based on an exploratory, parallel, mixed-method approach. A multi-method, student-centered, computer-assisted, semi-structured online interview was used as the data gathering tool, including both a standardized quantitative questionnaire on perceived well-being and an open-ended question about how adolescents were taking charge of their well-being during the COVID-19 health emergency.
Maternal psychopathological profile during childbirth and neonatal development during the COVID-19 pandemic: a pre-posttest study

AUTHOR(S)
Sergio Martinez-Vazquez; Blanca Riquelme-Gallego; Leydi Jhoansy Lugo-Toro (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Behavioral Sciences
The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 generated an alert that became a state of emergency in health issues worldwide, a situation that affected the entire population, including pregnant women. The present study aims to understand the effect of the psychopathological profile of a sample of pregnant women at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic on themselves during childbirth (Phase 1) and after childbirth and the anthropometric measures of the neonate at birth (Phase 2). The total sample comprises 81 pregnant women aged 32.07 years (SD = 5.45) and their neonates. Sociodemographic and obstetric data of the sample were collected. During pregnancy, psychopathology was measured by means of the SCL-90, as well as other psychological measures on stress and social support. Cluster k-means techniques were used to uncover the heterogeneous profiles of psychopathology in Phase 1.
Access to mental health support, unmet need and preferences among adolescents during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Lauren R. Gorfinkel; Gaelen Snell; David Long (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic has had widespread effects on adolescent mental health. However, little is known about support-seeking, unmet need and preferences for mental health care among adolescents. The Youth Development Instrument (YDI) is a school-administered survey of adolescents (N = 1928, mean age = 17.1, SD = 0.3) across British Columbia, Canada. In this cohort, we assessed the characteristics of accessed mental health supports, prevalence of unmet need and preferences for in-person versus internet-based services.

The longitudinal association between internet addiction and depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Li Zhao; Xiang Li; Qin Yang (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Frontiers in Public Health

The COVID-19 pandemic and related prevention policies, such as home quarantine or online courses, could increase the risks of experiencing internet addiction and mental health problems among Chinese adolescents. There is a lack of longitudinal evidence to show the association between internet addiction symptoms and psychological consequences (e.g., depressive and anxiety symptoms). This study aimed to explore the association between internet addiction and depressive and anxiety symptoms before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. An effective sample of 7,958 Chinese adolescents was recruited for this two-wave longitudinal survey conducted over a six-month interval. All participants completed two-wave surveys before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A longitudinal cross-lagged path model was used to analyze the associations between internet addiction and depressive and anxiety symptoms after controlling for four covariates (i.e., age, sex, minority, and COVID-19 influence).

Onset risk factors for youth involvement in cyberbullying and cybervictimization: a longitudinal study

AUTHOR(S)
Anna Sorrentino; Alessia Esposito; Debora Acunzo (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Frontiers in Psychology

Cyberbullying and cybervictimization are spread worldwide, and due to COVID-19, an increasing number of children and adolescents have been impacted. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, research has investigated and highlighted the key risk factors for cyberbullying and cybervictimization, and numerous anti-cyberbullying prevention and intervention programs have been developed and assessed for their efficacy. Despite this, no studies have specifically focused on the individual, relational, and contextual risk factors associated with the onset of youth involvement in cyberbullying and cybervictimization.  To address this lacuna, 333 Italian students aged 10–16 years (M = 12.16, SD = 1.35) were involved in a year-long longitudinal study and filled in the anonymous online actuarial Tabby Improved Checklist two times with a 6-month interval. Onset risk factors for cyberbullying and cybervictimization have been separately analyzed by excluding all students involved in cyberbullying from the original sample or in the cybervictimization baseline (T1).

Disruption to education during COVID-19: school nonacademic factors are associated with children's mental health

AUTHOR(S)
Kimberley C. Tsujimoto; Katherine Tombeau Cost; Kaitlyn Laforge-Mackenzie (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatric2

Few studies have examined aspects of the school environment, beyond modality, as contributors to child and youth mental health during the coronavirus pandemic. We investigated associations between nonacademic school experiences and children's mental health. Parents of children ages 6 to 18 years completed online surveys about school experiences (November 2020) and mental health (February/March 2021). Parent-reported and child-reported school experiences (i.e., nonacademic factors) included school importance, adapting to public health measures, and school connectedness. Children's mental health symptoms of depression, anxiety, inattention, and hyperactivity were collected using standardized parent-reported measures.

In the shadow of COVID-19: A randomized controlled online ACT trial promoting adolescent psychological flexibility and self-compassion

AUTHOR(S)
Päivi Lappalainen; Raimo Lappalainen; Katariina Keinonen (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science

Although some adolescents managed to cope well with the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the well-being of many was adversely affected due to school closures, distance education, restrictions on gathering with friends, and limited access to mental health services. Many adolescents reported increased anxiety and depression as well as decreased psychological wellbeing due to the pandemic. Consequently, there is a need for psychological support that exceeds the strained resources available to schools to support young people during times of crisis and societal pressure. The present study aimed to explore the effects of an online-delivered ACT intervention to promote adolescent psychological flexibility and self-compassion and decrease psychological distress during the second wave of COVID-19 in the fall of 2020.

Mother-infant emotional availability through the COVID-19 pandemic: examining continuity, stability, and bidirectional associations

AUTHOR(S)
Nila Shakiba; Gal Doron; Avigail Gordon-Hacker (et al.)

Published: January 2023   Journal: Infancy
The COVID-19 pandemic may impact the development of infants' social communication patterns with their caregivers. The current study examined continuity, stability, and bidirectional associations in maternal and infant dyadic Emotional Availability (EA) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 110 Israeli mother-infant dyads (51% girls) that were assessed prior to (Mage = 3.5 months) and during (Mage = 12.4 months) the pandemic.
31 - 45 of 2543

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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.