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Explaining Children's News Avoidance During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Despite growing concerns that children (8-13 years old) tend to avoid the news, the reasons why have received little research attention. Therefore, the current study aims to develop and test a model conceptualizing the relations between children's news consumption, news avoidance, emotional responses (negative emotions and anxiety-related behaviors), and parent and child mitigation strategies. The model was tested using data collected during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current, preregistered, survey study was part of a longitudinal project and used data from the second wave. Data were collected in November/December 2020 among 510 children (M _age = 10.40; 53.72% girls). Findings showed that children who consumed more news during the pandemic avoided pandemic news less often. Children who experienced more anxiety-related behaviors regarding pandemic news avoided pandemic news more often. The relation between news consumption and emotional responses was stronger for children who experienced restrictive parental mediation more often, indicating that this was not an effective parental mediation strategy for tempering their emotional responses. Children with higher levels of emotional responses used reactive coping strategies more often. However, this did not seem to be an effective strategy against pandemic news avoidance because none of the strategies had a negative relation with pandemic news avoidance. Distancing was even positively related to pandemic news avoidance. Although the current study was not able to fully unravel how news avoidance-related constructs relate to one another, we were able to get some important insights guiding future research. Specifically, it is of crucial importance to unravel the mechanisms that increase the chance of children's news avoidance and those that mitigate it, to build interventions to counteract news avoidance and to protect children from the negative emotional consequences by news consumption.

SUBMITTER: Ebbinkhuijsen M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9258973 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundCOVID-19 has drastically changed the everyday lives of children, including limiting interactions with peers, loss of regularly organized activities, and closure of schools and recreational facilities. While COVID-19 protocols are in place to reduce viral transmission, they have affected children's access to physical activity opportunities. The purpose of this study was to understand how COVID-19 has affected children's engagement in physical activity and to identify strategies that can support children's return to physical activity programming in public places.MethodsParents of past participants in the Grade 5 ACT-i-Pass Program in London, Ontario, Canada were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview online (in November and December 2020) via Microsoft Teams. The script was comprised of questions about their child's physical activity levels (before, current, and anticipated following COVID-19), lifestyle changes due to COVID-19, and what service providers can do to assist children's return to public programming. Interviews were transcribed in Microsoft Teams, reviewed by a member of the research team, and analyzed in NVivo 12 using thematic analysis.ResultsTwenty-seven parents participated in an interview. Four themes and two subthemes were identified during analysis: (1) modifications to everyday life (a. activity options available and b. altered social environment), (2) safety in public spaces, (3) accessibility of activities, and (4) utilizing outdoor spaces.ConclusionsCOVID-19 protocols have decreased children's physical activity levels due to the loss of their regular activities, recreational spaces, and peer support. Implementing facility and activity-specific health protocols, providing outdoor activity options, and offering a variety of activity types, times, and locations are three strategies recommended by parents to help facilitate their children's return to public recreational places. Due to the negative consequences of physical inactivity on children's health and well-being, service providers need to implement programming and safety protocols that support children's engagement in physical activity throughout the remainder of, and the years following, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Project description:ImportanceUnderstanding youth well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic can help appropriately allocate resources and inform policies to support youth.ObjectiveTo examine caregiver-reported changes in the psychological well-being of their children 3 to 4 months after the start of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, and to examine the association of caregiver-reported COVID-19 exposure and family stressors with caregiver perceptions of child psychological well-being.Design, setting, and participantsThis survey study used an anonymous survey distributed via email from June 24 to July 15, 2020, to 350 000 families of students attending public schools in Chicago, Illinois. The a priori hypotheses were that caregivers would report worsening in child psychological well-being during the closure period compared with preclosure and that exposure to COVID-19-related stressors would be associated with a higher probability of worsening child psychological well-being. Data were analyzed from September 10, 2020, to March 15, 2021.Main outcomes and measuresOutcomes were 7 mental health concerns and 5 positive adjustment characteristics reported by caregivers using a retrospective pre-post design. COVID-19 exposure and family stressors were also reported by caregivers.ResultsAmong 350 000 families invited to participate, 32 217 caregivers (10 827 [39.3%] White, 8320 [30.2%] Latinx, 6168 [22.4%] Black; 2223 [8.1%] with multiple or other races/ethnicities) completed the survey on behalf of 49 397 children in prekindergarten through 12th grade. Child-specific outcomes were reported for 40 723 to 40 852 children depending on the specific question. The frequency of caregiver endorsement of youth mental health concerns ranged from 0.1 percentage point (suicidal ideation or self-harm, reported by 191 caregivers [0.5%] preclosure vs 246 caregivers [0.6%] during closure; P < .001) to 28.3 percentage points (loneliness, reported by 1452 caregivers [3.6%] preclosure vs 13 019 caregivers [31.9%] during closure; P < .001) higher after the end of in-person instruction compared with preclosure. Frequency of caregiver endorsement of youth positive adjustment characteristics ranged from -13.4 percentage points (plans for the future, reported by 18 114 caregivers [44.3%] preclosure vs 12 601 caregivers [30.9%] during closure; P < .001) to -30.9 percentage points (positive peer relationships, reported by 24 666 caregivers [60.4%] preclosure vs 19 130 caregivers [46.8%] during closure; P < .001) lower after the end of in-person instruction. Significant differences in COVID-19 exposure were observed across racial/ethnic (F3,27 534 = 614.8; P < .001) and household income strata (F5,27 506 = 842.0; P < .001). After accounting for covariates, all mental health concerns increased in probability (eg, angry: odds ratio, 1.55 [95% CI, 1.48-1.62]; P < .001) and all the positive adjustment characteristics decreased in probability (eg, hopeful or positive: odds ratio, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.84-0.92]; P < .001) as COVID-19 exposure and family stressors increased.Conclusions and relevanceIn this survey study of caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 and resulting exposure to stress were associated with worse youth psychological well-being, demonstrating the need for a comprehensive public health approach that prioritizes children's well-being and draws broad public attention to the mental health needs of youth.

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Explaining Children's News Avoidance During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

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