Penn State University's Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies TCCMS

PROJECT SUMMARY / Abstract: Although emerging data regarding the current COVID-19 pandemic suggest that children and adolescents have a lower risk of being diagnosed with severe COVID-19 infections, serious adverse effects, including death, have been reported in this age group. Additionally, concerns that children and adolescents with mild COVID-19 infections continue to spread infections remain. Despite being less likely to be diagnosed with cases of COVID-19, youth's lives are profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in numerous ways, including due to disrupted daily routines and educational experiences, reduced social contacts with peers and families, and, potentially, increased exposures to unsafe home environments, overwhelmed caregivers, incidents of domestic violence, and, possibly, incidents of child maltreatment. This highlights that youth with a history of child maltreatment may be particularly vulnerable to the direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic seeing as they are likely to come from families already experiencing multiple hardships. This impacts a large number of youth; over one third of U.S. youth are investigated for child maltreatment (CM) before theage of 18. The proposed project will build on the currently ongoing Child Health Study (CHS;HD089922, PI: Noll, Co-I: Schreier), as part of which 775 youth aged 8-13 years who were recently investigated for CM as well as 225 comparison youth without a history of CM are being recruited and followed prospectively. Taking advantage of this unique and exceptionally well-characterized cohort, we will augment the biopsychosocial data already being collected to examine vulnerability and resilience towards COVID-19 infections among these youth, as well as how the additional stress that is currently being experienced by caregivers in the study may spill over to impact youth well-being throughout and following this pandemic. We will examine whether a broad range of physiological, e.g., endocrine, immune, and metabolic, as well as psychosocial, and demographic characteristics of youth are associated with known infections of COVID-19 or with an absence of known infections in the context of having been in close contact with individuals with known infections. Additionally, we will investigate the influence of added caregiver stress on possible exacerbations of existing youth health problems, physiological markers of stress, and new incidents of child maltreatment. Thus, by shedding light on the current and future experiences of some of society's most vulnerable individuals, the resulting data have the potential to provide a powerful jumping-off point for future intervention programs to support these youth who are and will be transitioning into adulthood in the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, this knowledge will also carry forward into informing responses to possible future pandemics which may have similar effects on the everyday lives of individuals.