What impact will the COVID-19 pandemic have on children?
A big question from the COVID-19 pandemic is: what impact will it have on children?
That's what the Observatory for children's health and education (OPES), with the CHU Sainte-Justine, wants to uncover, with $5 million in funding from the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ).
While it may seem like the health crisis is coming to an end, thanks to the province's robust vaccination campaign, researchers insist the last 18 months won't just be a bad memory, left in the past.
"We've never been very worried about the health of young people," said Sylvana Côté, a researcher with CHU Sainte-Justine and professor at Université de Montréal's school of public health. "But we can't assume that three months of lost school time in 2020...and one to seven class closures in 2020 have not affected the children. There will be consequences of this and they will not be the same for everyone, that's clear."
Côté will lead a research project based on four main areas: mental health and wellbeing; education (the impact on learning); infection, immunity and transmission; and healthy lifestyle habits (diet, sleep, substance abuse, screens, etc.).
Two cross-cutting themes will focus on the economic impact of the crisis, such as loss of workforce training and social innovation -- what can be done to mitigate the impacts of the crisis.
School closures and disruption of school rhythms will have varying degrees of impact depending on a child's previous educational and psychosocial trajectory, as well as the extent of personal and family stress they experienced, Côté states.
"The pandemic disproportionately affects children from visible minorities and economically disadvantaged families," she notes.
"Where are the impacts? Who is experiencing less stress and who is facing more disruptions? What do we need to do to make sure we don't have people dropping out? Some young people will stay on, some are doing very well, (...) but there are some for whom it has been more difficult and it won't necessarily go away easily for everyone."
Funding from the FRQ will allow various academic partners with the Observatory to carry out different research projects.
The OPES will contribute "standardized assessments to come to a conclusion and identify where the needs are," Côté added.
"The data we currently have reflects only the situation of children who were able or willing to speak," she said. "We don't know anything about the smallest children, who were not able to speak, or those who are 'so bad' that they didn't want to speak."
She adds researchers will look at regional, national and international data to be able to see things a little more clearly.
"It will be very interesting to see the extent certain measures have had, if some worked better or worse," Côté concluded. "We have always been on a kind of pendulum swing when it comes to the wellbeing of children, their learning, their safety, the safety of their families... These have always been very difficult choices. For the moment, the repercussions of these choices are entirely empirical questioning."
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 14, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus survives vote calling for his ouster
Greg Fergus survived a vote to oust him as House of Commons Speaker on Tuesday, but with close to half of MPs expressing a loss of confidence in him, he faces a precarious path forward in maintaining order in Parliament.
'It was hell': Israeli mother held hostage with her children describes 51 days in captivity
Hagar Brodutch, her three children and four-year-old neighbour were kidnapped by Hamas-led militants from their home in Kfar Aza, Israel on Oct. 7 and held for 51 days. They were released in November, but Brodutch says her thoughts are never far from those still being held in Gaza.
'Unruly passenger' forces WestJet flight to make emergency landing in B.C.
A WestJet flight heading to Calgary had to make an emergency landing in northern B.C. Monday due to an incident involving an 'unruly passenger,' Mounties say.
P.E.I. kiteboarder 'lucky to be alive' after shark attack in Turks and Caicos
A professional kiteboarder from P.E.I. says he has been seriously injured in a shark attack that occurred while he was snorkelling in the Turks and Caicos Islands last week.
BREAKING Teen dies after being hit by train in N.W. Calgary
A teenager has died after being hit by a train in northwest Calgary on Tuesday afternoon.
Black bear kebabs make family sick with parasitic worms
It was supposed to be a celebration, but one family’s unique meal of black bear meat sent several members to the hospital instead.
'It's his vacation too': Jimmy the baby goat joins 2-week road trip across Canada
After Jimmy the baby goat was shunned by his mother, a New Brunswick man took the kid on a two-week road trip across Canada.
The double-level airplane seat is back. This time, there’s a first-class version
It’s the airplane seat design that launched a thousand memes and kickstarted a media storm. And now the double-level seat is back – only this time, with a twist.
New COVID-19 subvariants become the dominant strains in Canada
More than four years after COVID-19 effectively shut down the world, two new variants of COVID-19 have become the dominant strains of the novel coronavirus in Canada.