The Impact of COVID-19-Induced Changes at Schools on Elementary Students' School Engagement

In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of schools in many countries. Emerging research documents the negative effects of the pandemic and particularly of the shutdown of schools on children's well-being. The present research extends this research by investigating how structural changes made in schools upon reopening to align with COVID-19 restrictions were related to children's emotional school engagement and subjective well-being. An online questionnaire with elementary school children and their parents conducted in Norway in June 2020 (N = 93 parent–child dyads; 46 boys, 47 girls; mean age children = 9.70 years, SD = 1.81) assessed structural changes in schools and children's coping with these changes, emotional school engagement, subjective well-being, self-reported performance in school, and demographics. Results showed that neither receiving a new teacher nor being assigned to a new (smaller) group were associated with negative outcomes. However, children who did not like their new group showed reduced emotional school engagement and subjective well-being, indicating that specific students particularly suffered from the pandemic-induced restrictions. The relationship between liking one's group and SWB was mediated by emotional school engagement. Applied and theoretical implications are discussed.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Families: Young People’s Experiences in Estonia

This articles reflects the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the everyday lives of children and their families in Estonia during lockdown in spring 2020 and 2021. The data corpus is based on diaries compiled by children during the first lockdown in 2020 for a collection at the Estonian Literary Museum, and on a series of semi-structured interviews with children documenting their experiences during lockdown in spring 2021. The study draws on literature from the “new sociology of childhood” and applies Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological model to an analysis of young people’s experiences when their mobility outside the home was restricted, and they were forced to reorganise their time use. The findings show how the pandemic extended the social contexts in which children and their families are embedded and highlighted the role played by socio-cultural factors in shaping children’s coping capacities. In combination, analysis of the two datasets demonstrated the differential effects of lockdown on young children. The accounts from the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 suggested that positive family environments could smooth the negative effects of lockdown and help them cope with unexpected changes in their everyday lives. The interviews during the second outbreak of the pandemic revealed how the emerging weariness and boredom reported by some children strained family relationships. The amount of time that children spent online both modified and expanded their experiences of technology-supported interactive spaces. Their reports showed that the interactive contexts in which they were operating through social media extended beyond national borders to an interest in transnational and global events. Online communication did not, however, compensate for the loss of real-life contacts with friends, which became a major concern for young people in Estonia. In the concluding discussion, the authors consider policy responses that address the main issues identified in the research.

Sleep and Coping in Early Childhood During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sleep disturbances in early childhood are associated with mood and anxiety disorders. Children also exhibit sleep disruptions, such as nighttime awakenings, nightmares, and difficulties falling asleep, in conjunction with adverse events and stress. Prior studies have examined independently the role of sleep on adaptive processing, as well as the effects of stress on sleep. However, how childhood sleep and children's adaptive behavior (i.e., coping strategies) bidirectionally interact is currently less known. Using a within-subjects design and actigraphy-measured sleep from 16 preschool-aged children (Mage = 56.4 months, SD = 10.8, range: 36–70 months), this study investigated how prior sleep patterns relate to children's coping during a potentially stressful event, the COVID-19 pandemic, and how prior coping skills may influence children's sleep during the pandemic. Children who woke earlier had greater negative expression both before and during the pandemic. During the pandemic, children slept longer and woke later on average compared to before the pandemic. Additionally, for children engaged in at-home learning, sleeping longer was associated with less negative expression. These findings highlight how sleep behaviors and coping strategies are related, and the stability of this relationship under stress.

Coping in Children and Adolescents with a Genetic Muscle Disorder –Findings from a Population-Based Study

Background: The impact of genetic muscle disorders on quality of life in affected children are well-documented. However, few studies have investigated children’s coping strategies and relationships between coping and quality of life. Objectives: To determine coping strategy use, efficacy, and associations with quality of life in children with a genetic muscle disorder. Methods: Forty-eight children (6–15 years, 58%male) with a genetic muscle disorder were identified as part of a national prevalence study. Children completed the Kidcope in response to a specific stressor (doctors visits) and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Neuromuscular Module. Results: ‘Wishful thinking’ (75%, 36/48) and ‘cognitive restructuring’ (71%, 34/48) were the most frequently used coping strategies. ‘Self-criticism’ (12%, 6/48), and blaming others’ and ‘resignation’ (both 19%, 9/48) were the least used strategies. Coping strategy use did not differ across age andsex groups (p’s from 0.08 to 1.00). Positive coping strategies tended to be more effective (medians from 2.00 to 2.75) than negative strategies (medians ranged from 1.38 to 2.50). Using a greater number of different types of positive (F(4, 46) = 5.79, p = 0.001) and/or negative (F(4, 44) = 5.64, p 0.001) coping strategies was linked to poorer health-related quality of life. Conclusion: We conclude that children with genetic muscle disorders use a wide range of positive and/or negative coping strategies in response to stressors associated with a doctor visit and may benefit from greater support to improve health-related quality of life. Findings support the value of routine screening of children’s coping to identify those who would benefit from support.

Developing Coping Skills in the Early Years: A Positive Educational Approach

There are numerous ways to construe positive education in the early years, particularly as it relates to wellbeing and positive emotional outcomes. The teaching of coping skills provides tools for wellbeing within a positivist framework through emphasising the use of productive coping strategies and reducing the use of unhelpful, non-productive strategies. This chapter provides an example of teaching coping skills in early childhood: the Early Years Coping Project. The project helped young children articulate and understand coping constructs and provided tools to help parents and teachers to assess children’s coping. Visual tools facilitated the development of children’s coping skills in classroom activities. Parents were encouraged to develop their parenting skills and their own coping, utilising the emotion and coping language that is common to them and their children. The parent program was subsequently adapted in a format that was readily communicated to a culturally diverse population, using the generic frameworks and constructs of coping. Coping concepts and constructs have subsequently been incorporated into a COPE-Resilience curriculum. We highlight several applications and extensions of the curriculum. Coping skills provide a template for healthy social-emotional development that can be utilised in different contexts throughout life.

Outcomes for Families Referred to Family Centres: Using Validated Instruments to Chart Changes in Psychological Functioning, Relationships and Children’s Coping Strategies over Time

There is growing interest in the development of evidence supporting therapeutic interventions in social work. Few examples, however, exist, of the use of validated instrumentation in measuring the impact of services upon children and families. We report here on the use of a suite of validated instruments to measure the impact of services on children and their parents in receipt of services provided by an Irish Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) across their seven family centres. The NGO engaged a team of university-based researchers who provided training in the use of validated instruments, monitored implementation of their use and analysed the resulting data. Over a two-year period, 968 families were surveyed at Time 1 (entering the service), with 452 completing surveys at Time 2 (leaving the service). The results indicate a decrease in children’s emotional and social problems, with those with highest scores at Time 1 making most progress by Time 2. Similarly, it was evident that interventions had a positive impact upon parental mental health and, with regard to child–parent relationships, both children and their parents reported positive changes. Such findings lay emphasis on the importance of measuring the impact of services on individual psychological functioning and interfamilial relationships.

Family bonds in the midst of adversity: Insights into refugee children’s coping ways

This study explored refugee children’s ways of coping focusing on their strengths. The present study involved 26 students, 8 Iraqi Kurds, 6 Afghans, and 12 from Syria attending reception classes (called early morning reception zone) in the morning program of two Greek Elementary schools. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews. This study using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) explored the subjective narratives of the participating refugee children. Three superordinate themes relating to the aims of the current research emerged from the data: (1) caring relationships, (2) a place of (and for) safety and (3) new perspectives. Supportive family bonds, being securely resettled with other family members, security of housing and opportunities to study in a supportive school environment were found to be factors which either reduced significant stressors or ameliorated the effects of adverse childhood experiences as regards this study’s participants.

Coping Strategies in the Family and School Ecosystem

The objective of the present study is to study children’s coping strategies used when faced with different stressors in their daily life (problems with their school work, problems getting along with other children and problems at home with people in their family), in a vulnerable social environment. This objective was evaluated through the Child Coping Questionnaire. The research for this study was conducted through a descriptive, inferential, quantitative, ex post facto design. The sample consisted of 50 schoolchildren from one suburban primary school in Madrid, Spain. The ages of the children range from 8 to 11 years. At present, almost 25% families are in a vulnerable situation. This instrument measures 14 coping categories that analyse positive and self-effective attitudes to favour socio-communicative processes and decision-making in situations of conflict between students. The results indicate that what bothers children the most is, first of all, problems getting along with other children (35.8%), problems with their school work (30.2%) and problems at home with people in their family (24.5%). Regarding their lifestyle outside the school environment and relationship with their family, 38% of participants spend a lot of time outside their home, according to our findings. This result can explain the difficulties in completing their homework that these children have. This can also trigger a curricular gap compared to their reference group, which can sometimes lead to school failure.