This project aims to bring together academics and practitioners from the four nations of the United Kingdom (UK) and the Republic of Ireland to establish an interdisciplinary research network to study the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated policy responses, on children in the two countries and beyond. The new Interdisciplinary Child Well-Being Network (ICWBN) will pool theories, evidence and methodological approaches from across the social sciences to study the medium- and longer-term consequences of the pandemic for children’s living standards as well as their outcomes in health, cognitive- and socio-behavioural development, educational attainment and achievement, and subjective well-being.
Draft Programme
9:55: Opening Remarks. Julia Mikolai
Session 1: Economic well-being (Chair: Kat Chzhen)
10:00 – 10:20 Covid Realities: Reflections from researching with families living on a low income during the pandemic (Jim Kaufman, University of York)
10:20 – 10:40 Growing Up in Ireland: Key findings from the special COVID-19 survey (Aisling Murray, ESRI)
10:40 – 11:00 Socio-Economic impact of Covid-19 pandemic on children and families living in disadvantaged communities of Tallaght, Ireland (Jefrey Shumba, Childhood Development Initiative)
11:00 – 11:20 Generation Pandemic, title tbc (Sarah Edmonds, Irish Youth Foundation)
11:20 – 11:30 Break
Session 2: Education (Chair: Julia Mikolai)
11:30– 11:50 Children’s learning experiences over the course of the pandemic in England (Sarah Cattan, IFS)
11:50 – 12:10 Coping with UK school closures: the changing responses of schools, parents and children during COVID-19 (Birgitta Rabe, University of Essex)
12:10 – 12:30 Children’s engagement with remote schooling during the Spring 2020 lockdown in Ireland (Kat Chzhen, Trinity College Dublin)
12:30 – 13:30 Break
Session 3: Mental health (Chair: Jennifer Symonds)
13:30 – 13:50 The COVID-19 crisis and children’s mental health in the UK (Julia Mikolai, St Andrews University)
13:50 – 14:10 Tracking children, young people, and parents’ mental health throughout the pandemic: Findings from the UK Co-SPACE study and how we are responding to them (Cathy Creswell, University of Oxford)
14:10 – 14:30 The mental health and well-being of young people and their families during COVID-19: Key findings from Co-SPACE Ireland (Jennifer McMahon, University of Limerick)
14:30 – 14:40 Break
Session 4: Panel discussion (Chair: Susan Harkness)
14:40 – 16:00 Children’s Society (UK), Save the Children (UK), One Family (Ireland), Ombudsman for Children’s Office (Ireland)