How can we help children adjust to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond?

The Co-VIsION project aims to learn more about how children have creatively found ways to manage the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Funded by the Health Research Board and the Irish Research Council, the project will explore the creative and innovative ways children have been responding to the changes during and after the pandemic, and how their initiatives may help other children, particularly addressing their sense of safety, calm, hope, self-efficacy and connectedness. In this project, researchers will specifically focus on the active engagement of children, what we can learn from them and how this can be translated and adjusted to other groups within our society on how to deal with the effects of this pandemic. What is the issue?While children may experience an impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on their health and wellbeing, as well as their sense of safety, they are also capable of responding positively and creatively to the challenges presented, helping themselves and others to survive and thrive in taxing times. What will the research project do? This research will explore strategies in the home and community, where children's creative and innovative responses have helped them and their friends and families adjust to changes during and after the pandemic. It will also look at how children's actions in the pandemic may affect the ability of others in their community to adjust to changes. What will the impact be? By identifying ways in which children can be active and engaged, and in doing so can maintain a sense of safety and self-efficacy, the research will inform strategies to develop long-term resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lead Researcher Dr Suja Somanadhan, Assistant Professor in Children's Nursing, University College Dublin, says: "Project Co-VIsION will enable us to connect with children from across the globe and to learn from their life experiences. This can provide indicators for potential early interventions and recommendations for future research, and can help promote positive community actions and responses during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond."