Supporting marginalised children with school problems in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Minhas RS
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7804822 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Background: To prevent spreading of the COVID-19 infection, many countries have implemented a nationwide school closure. We aimed to assess the prevalence of behavioral problems in school-aged children during home confinement.Methods: We conducted an internet-based survey involving 1264 children (grades 2-6) and their parents from two primary schools between February 25 and March 8, 2020, in Hubei province, China. Behavioral problems were evaluated using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).Results: The prevalence of prosocial behaviors among children was 10.3%, followed by total difficulty (8.2%), conduct problems (7.0%), peer problems (6.6%), hyperactivity-inattention (6.3%) and emotional problems (4.7%). Compared with children who did not exercise, children with psychical activity had a lower hyperactivity-inattention risk (Odds Ratio (OR): 0.44 for 1-2 days/week; OR: 0.56 for more than 2 days/week) and less prosocial behaviors problems (OR: 0.65 for 1-2 days/week; OR: 0.55 for more than 2 days/week). Children of parents with anxious symptoms were associated with increased risks of emotional symptoms and total difficulty (OR: 5.64 and 3.78, respectively).Limitations: We adopted self-report questionnaires and did not collect baseline information before COVID-19 outbreak. The potential self-selection bias inherent in the study should be noted.Conclusion: The prevalence of behavioral problems among school-aged children varied from 4.7% to 10.3% in home quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak. Taking physical exercise may be an efficient measure to reduce behavioral problems for school-aged children in home confinement.
| S-EPMC7543949 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at elevated risk for psychiatric problems in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This risk is due to their high rates of pre-pandemic psychiatric comorbidities and the pandemic's disruption to routines and access to necessary supports. Prior research has indicated that children with ASD may experience a worsening of specific psychiatric symptoms in response to COVID-19, though this body of work is limited in scope. The present study expands this literature by examining specific types of psychiatric problems that emerged about 2 months after the onset of the pandemic, and risk factors predicting changes in these psychiatric symptoms. Parents of children with a confirmed ASD diagnosis (N = 257), who enrolled in a clinic registry at an outpatient specialty autism center, were included in this study. All data were gathered online via customized and standardized questionnaires. Results showed that 59% of children experienced either a worsening of their pre-pandemic psychiatric diagnoses and/or the development of new psychiatric symptoms during the pandemic. Multivariable regression models indicated that risk factors for increased psychiatric problems included child understanding of COVID-19, COVID-19 illness in the family, low family income, and elevated parental depression and anxiety symptoms (all p < 0.05). Findings from this study emphasize the urgent need to provide effective and accessible psychiatric services for children with ASD and their families during and after the pandemic. LAY SUMMARY: Children with ASD are at high risk for psychiatric problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that 59% of children in our clinical sample are experiencing increased psychiatric problems. The child's understanding of COVID-19, COVID-19 illness in the family, low family income, and depression and anxiety symptoms in the parent increase the risk for poor mental health during the pandemic. These findings indicate the importance of helping children with ASD access mental health treatment during COVID-19.
| S-EPMC8420610 | biostudies-literature
Project description:As a result of COVID-19 restrictions, conventional ways of schooling were not possible, and in order to continue the educational process new digital resources, such as online learning platforms, were imposed. Although virtual courses provided high-quality educational material, the efficiency in children's and adolescents' academic performance in general is yet to be known. The purpose of this systematic review is to examine whether the academic performance of school-aged students was impacted or not through online learning and modified educational methods during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to the studies, either students suffered from learning losses comparing to pre-pandemic years or, in some cases, they benefited from online learning, especially in mathematics. Younger students and students with neurodevelopmental disorders or special education needs seemed to suffer more. Parents/caregivers reported that their children's performance deteriorated, while others thought that online learning was beneficial. Teachers also reported that students presented academic gaps and difficulties in mathematics and reading compared to typical years. Consequently, the new ways of schooling imposed by the restrictions have not been fully tested and the impact cannot be described thoroughly. The investment in technological equipment in schools for the majority of students, along with the training of teachers in digital competence, should be a priority.
| S-EPMC8700572 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesChildren experiencing family violence (child abuse and neglect and exposure to intimate partner violence) are at a particularly elevated risk for compounding challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we interviewed intimate partner violence (IPV) advocates, child protective services (CPS) caseworkers, and IPV and CPS administrators on the needs of children experiencing family violence during the pandemic.MethodsWe conducted semistructured interviews with IPV advocates, CPS caseworkers, and IPV and CPS administrators. Recruitment occurred through emails to national and state listservs, networks of the study team, and word of mouth. Interviews were completed through Zoom, took 45 to 60 minutes and were audio recorded. We used a mixed deductive-inductive content analysis approach.ResultsFifty-nine IPV advocates, 35 IPV administrators, 21 CPS workers and 16 CPS administrators participated in this study. Four themes emerged from this work. Participants discussed the role of social isolation, school closures, and distance learning on children experiencing family violence. They also noted child custody and visitation challenges, particularly in the context of abusive partners using custody to control IPV survivors and limitations to virtual visitation more broadly. Compounding challenges were described for children from marginalized communities due to structural-level inequities. Collaboration was discussed by participants from both IPV and CPS sectors.ConclusionThis study is one of the first to describe the way the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted children experiencing family violence. Future studies should triangulate these results with children, families, and other child-serving providers.
| S-EPMC8949658 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThere is concern about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychosocial functioning among school-age children, who have faced unusual stressors during this time. Our goal was to assess mental health symptoms and social risks during COVID-19, compared to before the pandemic, for urban, racial and ethnic minority school-age children, and investigate the relationship between mental health and social risks.MethodsWe conducted a cohort study from September 2019 until January 2021 of children age 5-11 years old recruited from an urban safety net hospital-based pediatric primary care practice. We measured emotional and behavioral symptoms (including attention, internalizing, and externalizing symptoms) before and during the pandemic with the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17). We measured social risks (including food and housing insecurity) before and during the pandemic with the THRIVE screener. We measured additional mid-pandemic COVID-related stressors with items on school participation, screens/media use, illness exposure, and caregiver mental health. We compared pre- and mid-pandemic PSC-17 symptom scores across 4 domains (total, attention, internalizing, and externalizing) and used path analysis to examine the relationship between mental health and social risks pre- and mid-pandemic.ResultsCaregivers of 168 children (54% non-Hispanic Black, 29% Hispanic, and 22% non-English speaking) completed the study. Children had significantly higher levels of emotional and behavioral symptoms midpandemic- vs. pre-pandemic in all domains. Significantly more children had a positive PSC-17 total score (18% vs. 8%, p < 0.01) and internalizing (depression and anxiety) score (18% vs. 5%, p < 0.001) during the pandemic vs. before, indicating clinical concerns in these areas. Caregivers reported significantly more social risks during vs. before the pandemic (p < 0.001). Mental health symptoms significantly correlated with number of social risks before the pandemic, but not during the pandemic. Less school assignment completion, increased screen time, and caregiver depression were all significantly associated with worse mid-pandemic mental health in children.ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in depression/anxiety problems and social risks among urban, racial and ethnic minority school-age children compared to before the pandemic. More research is needed to understand if these changes will persist.
| S-EPMC8637516 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-BSST1055 | biostudies-other
Project description:The effects of coronavirus are not just physical but also psychological in all age groups and more so common among children. Some children may have had experience of quarantine restrictions during this COVID-19 pandemic. Due to increased digital connections 'emotional contagion' where the distress and fear experienced by one spread to another person may also be common in children. The present study aims to determine whether COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown has caused stress and affected mental health of children and youth. The current study assessed stress in children and youth between 9 and 18 years age based on Short Self-Rating Questionnaire (SSRQ) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study design was an observational study, a descriptive cross-sectional study using online survey. Total 369 schools children participated in the survey. Score Scale and analysis was done to categorize the stress levels as Low, Moderate and Severe. Data analysis based on the total score levels (Delhi+Mathura zone, n=369) showed 30.08% (n=111) students with Low stress level, 62.87% (n=232) within Moderate stress level and 7.08% (n=26) with severe stress level. Students T Test revealed that there was a significant difference (p≤0.04) of the stress level male vs. female in total (Delhi + Mathura zone combined). However, the stress level was not significantly different between Delhi and Mathura zone alone. It is utmost to give primary importance to address the stress issues in children and adoloscents in the current scenario. Inclusion of Intervention strategies that are empirically supported and culturally appropriate as per the need of the communities for children and families may be helpful.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-02827-3.
| S-EPMC8814780 | biostudies-literature
Project description:During the COVID-19 pandemic, synchrotron beamlines were forced to limit user access. Performing routine measurements became a challenge. At the Life Science X-ray Scattering (LiX) beamline, new instrumentation and mail-in protocols have been developed to remove the access barrier to solution scattering measurements. Our efforts took advantage of existing instrumentation and coincided with the larger effort at NSLS-II to support remote measurements. Given the limited staff-user interaction for mail-in measurements, additional software tools have been developed to ensure data quality, to automate the adjustments in data processing, as users would otherwise rely on the experience of the beamline staff, and produce a summary of the initial assessments of the data. This report describes the details of these developments.
| S-EPMC8284406 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The recent COVID-19 pandemic has been disrupting the daily lives of people across the world, causing a major concern for psychological well-being in children. This study aimed to examine (1) how life satisfaction and its potential predictors have been affected by the pandemic among school-aged children in Korea, and (2) which factors would predict their life satisfaction during the pandemic. We surveyed 166 fourth-graders in the Seoul metropolitan area to assess their psychological well-being and potentially related variables during the pandemic. The data were compared with those available from two pre-COVID-19 surveys, the 2018 Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (n = 1236) and the 2019 Korean Children and Youth Well-being Index Survey (n = 334). Higher levels of stress were observed in children during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the level of their life satisfaction remained unchanged when compared with data from the pre-COVID-19 surveys. The pandemic also affected peer relationship quality and susceptibility to smartphone addiction, but not perceived parenting style nor academic engagement. Interestingly, peer relationship quality no longer predicted life satisfaction during the pandemic; perceived parenting styles and parent-child conversation time predicted life satisfaction. The results suggest a central role of parent-child relationship in supporting the psychological well-being of school-aged children during the pandemic.
| S-EPMC8004811 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Purpose: This study aims to characterize the early innate and adaptive responses induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adults over time up to 8 weeks post symptoms onset (POS). We report the gene signature of COVID-19 over the course of the disease in both age groups. The kinetic of infection was divided in 5-time intervals according to the calculated days POS: interval 1 (0-5), interval 2 (6-14), interval 3 (15-22), interval 4 (23-35), and interval 5 (36-81). Methods: RNA extraction was performed automatically via the PAXgene Blood miRNA Kit and the QIAcube instrument (Qiagen) following the manufacturer’s protocol. RNA concentration and quality were assessed by using the Qubit instrument (Invitrogen) and the Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer, respectively. The Stranded Total RNA Ribo-Zero Plus kit from Illumina was used for the library preparation with 100 ng of total RNA as input. Library molarity and quality were assessed with the Qubit and Tapestation using a DNA High sensitivity chip (Agilent Technologies). Libraries were pooled at 2 nM for clustering and sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 4000 sequencer for a minimum of 30 million single-end 100 reads per sample. Main results: (I) we observed an antiviral-IFN-signature and innate-cell-activation within the first 5 days post symptoms onset (POS), while genes associated with CD4 T-cell responses, plasma cells and immunoglobulin were upregulated in both age groups during the first two weeks POS, indicative of SARS-CoV-2-specific adaptive immune responses; (II) in adults, genes associated with IFN antiviral responses and activated dendritic cells were maintained during the second week of disease, and subsided only after 14 days. By contrast, those transcriptome changes subsided already after 5 days in children.
2021-09-22 | GSE166190 | GEO