Early insights into the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on girls – Plan International

The coronavirus outbreak is continuing to sweep the globe,
causing the worst health crisis of a generation. First identified in
November 2019, it is now severely challenging many of the richest
countries in the world, with Europe and North America the current
epicentres. Cases are now rising in some of the poorest countries,
where health systems are fragile and the ability to mitigate the
economic and social consequences is limited. While children’s
health appears to be less directly impacted by coronavirus than
adults, the impact of the pandemic on children, especially girls, will
be long-lasting.

The following research and reviews of practice are related to topics in children and young people:

2021

COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS)

Public Health Scotland developed the COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS) to find out about the experience, and impact of COVID-19 and the associated restrictions on our young children (2-7 year olds) in Scotland. We conducted the first round of CEYRIS between 22 June and 6 July 2020. Scotland had just moved to Phase 1 of the recovery ‘route-map’ (external website) and the restrictions were changing rapidly.

Reports and findings from round 1

The response to the survey was very positive with over 11,000 parents and carers of children from all over Scotland responding. We plan to repeat this survey to help us understand how things are changing for our young children and families as time goes on. We have published a series of reports presenting the findings from the first round of CEYRIS:

• Background Report – national COVID-19 context, survey methodology, representativeness of the data, demographics of the participants
• Report 1 – Key behaviours in children in Scotland during COVID-19
• Report 2 – Children’s play and learning, use of outdoor spaces and social interactions during COVID-19 in Scotland
• Report 3 – The experience of parents and carers during COVID-19 in Scotland
• Report 4 – Full findings from the first round of CEYRIS. In-depth analysis showing the impact of COVID-19 by income group, single-adult households, larger families and families living with long-term physical and mental health conditions
• Briefing paper – a short summary of the main findings shown in Report 4 from the first round of CEYRIS.

Go to the CEYRIS reports

Report and findings from round 2

The second round of the COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey ran in November/December 2020 to find out how children in Scotland aged 2-7 years continue to be affected by COVID-19.

This report provides an overview of the findings covering the following themes:

• key behaviours
• children’s play and learning, use of outdoor spaces and social interactions
• the experience of parents and carers during COVID-19
• the experience of COVID-19 and specific infection control measures.

Go to the CEYRIS round 2 report

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2020

Child Neglect in Schools: Messages for interprofessional safeguarding practice

Dr Victoria Sharley, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

The study was undertaken at Cardiff University between
2015 and 2018 and funded by the Welsh Government through
Health and Care Research Wales. The study was carried out in three regions in Wales (urban, rural and Valleys authority). The regions were selected on three criteria: (i) geographic location, (ii) either a low or high rate of child neglect registrations, and (iii) either a low, average or high rate of deprivation in Wales.

The mixed-method study comprised of two phases:
Phase 1, statistical case file analysis of children’s social
work records [case files were selected upon the following
principles: (i) the child was of school age, (ii) the school
made the initial referral to the local authority, and (iii) the child was placed on the child protection register under the category of neglect at the initial child protection conference]. Phase 2, 30 interviews with staff in six mainstream schools (including strategic, specialist, teaching, and non-teaching roles.

2019

Professor Sonia Livingstone FBA, London School of Economics (2020). Can We Realise Children’s Rights In A Digital World?

Centre for Research on Children & Families (2019). Making a Difference for Children and Families. Annual report 2018-2019

Palacios, J., Rolock, N., Selwyn, J., & Barbosa-Ducharne, M. (2019). Adoption breakdown: Concept, research, and implications. Research on Social Work Practice, 29(2), 130–142. 

Evans, R.et al. 2019. Adolescent self-harm prevention and intervention in secondary schools: A survey of staff in England and Wales. Child and Adolescent Mental Health 24(3), pp. 230-238. 

Jones, L. 2019. Remaining in Foster Care After Age 18 and Youth Outcomes at the Transition to Adulthood: A Review. Families in Society, 100(3), pp. 260–281. 

Laverty, A. A., Filippidis, F.T., Taylor-Robinson, D. et al. 2018. Smoking uptake in UK children: analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Thorax, 74(6), pp.607 

Mowat, J. G. 2019. Exploring the impact of social inequality and poverty on the mental health and wellbeing and attainment of children and young people in Scotland. Improving Schools, 22(3), pp. 204–223. 

Khouja, J.N., Munafò, M.R., Tilling, K. et al.2019. Is screen time associated with anxiety or depression in young people? Results from a UK birth cohort. BMC Public Health 19. 

Family Holiday Association. How was your summer? A survey of professionals on what summer was like for the children and families they support. September 2019.

Dr Jenny Smith and John Hamer. A system mapping approach to understanding child and adolescent wellbeing​ (2019). Department for Education.

APPG on Youth Affairs. National youth Agency. Youth Work Inquiry. Final Report. April 2019.

Children’s Commissioner for Wales. What Now? (2019)

Gillen, A. M., Kirby, K., McBride, O., McGlinchey, E., & Rushe, T. (2019). Comparing Self-Harm (SH) Thoughts and Behaviours Among a Community Sample of Younger and Older Adolescents in Northern Ireland. Child Care in Practice, 25(2), 189-199.

KEYWORDS: Early onset, non-suicidal self-harm, prevalence rates, younger and older adolescents

Cody, C., & D’Arcy, K. (2019). Involving Young People Affected by Sexual Violence in Efforts to Prevent Sexual Violence in Europe: What is Required?. Child Care in Practice, 25(2), 200-214.

KEYWORDS: Youth participation, sexual violence, child sexual exploitation, ethics

Healthy and happy. School impact on pupils’ health and wellbeing. June 2019

How do Family Drug and Alcohol Courts work with parents to safely reduce the number of children in care? A rapid realist review. Melissa Meindl, Lorna Stabler, Laura Mayhew-Manistre, Lucy Sheehan, Chloe O’Donnell, Donald Forrester and Sarah L. Brand.

Poverty, attainment and wellbeing: Making a difference to the lives of children and young people (May 2019). SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES INSIGHT INSTITUTE.

2018

Children’s Commissioner (2018). Who Knows About Me? A Children’s Commissioner report into the collection and sharing of children’s data.

Lydia Marshall and Neil Smith. National Centre for Social Research (2018). Supporting mental health in schools and colleges: Pen portraits of provision

Davies, H., & Christensen, P. (2018). Sharing spaces: children and young people negotiating intimate relationships and privacy in the family home. Families, Intergenerationality, and Peer Group Relations, 27-49.

Keywords: Intimacy, Privacy, Family, Space, Spatialities, Time, Home, Embodiment/body 

John, A., Glendenning, A. C., Marchant, A., Montgomery, P., Stewart, A., Wood, S., … & Hawton, K. (2018). Self-harm, suicidal behaviours, and cyberbullying in children and young people: systematic review. Journal of medical internet research, 20(4).

Keywords: cyberbullying, bullying, self-injurious behavior, suicide, suicide, attempted, suicidal ideation

Leu, A., Frech, M., & Jung, C. (2018). “You don’t look for it”—A study of Swiss professionals’ awareness of young carers and their support needs. Health & social care in the community, 26(4), e560-e570.

Keywords: awareness, focus groups, practice tools, young adult carers, young carers

Stanley, N., Barter, C., Wood, M., Aghtaie, N., Larkins, C., Lanau, A., & Överlien, C. (2018). Pornography, sexual coercion and abuse and sexting in young people’s intimate relationships: a European study. Journal of interpersonal violence, 33(19), 2919-2944.

Keywords: dating violence, domestic violence, adolescent victims, sexual assault

2016

Looked after children, care leavers and risk of teenage conception; findings from Wales: Summary of a National Response (2016). Dr Marion Lyons, Zoe Couzens, Dr NoelCraine, Sarah Andrews, Rhiannon Whitaker. 

#redrawthebalance – Inspiring the Future – Redraw the Balance – 2016

This powerful film from MullenLowe London provocatively captures how, early on in their education, children already define career opportunities as male and female. When asked to draw a firefighter, surgeon and a fighter pilot, 61 pictures were drawn of men and only 5 were female. It’s time to #redrawthebalance. Find out how you can support the cause by visiting: inspiringthefuture.org