Effect of daily school and care disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic on child behavior problems.

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected American families and children, including through the closure or change in the nature of their care and school settings. As the pandemic has persisted, many children remain in remote schooling and those attending in-person childcare or school have contended with unpredictable closures. This study investigated the frequency and consequences of disruptions to children's childcare and school arrangements during Fall 2020. The sample is parents who were hourly service-sector workers prior to the pandemic, had a young child between the ages of 3 and 8, and were at least partially responsible for their children's school and/or care in Fall 2020 (N = 676); half of the sample were non-Hispanic Black, 22% were Hispanic, and 18% are non-Hispanic White. Parents were asked to complete 30 days of daily surveys about whether their care and school arrangements went smoothly and as predicted that day, about their mood, parenting behaviors, and children's behavior. Results showed that daily disruptions to care and school were common, with families reporting a disruption on 24% of days. Families with children in exclusively remote schooling experienced more frequent disruption than families with children in in-person care or school. For all families, care or school disruptions were related to worse child behavior, more negative parental mood, and increased likelihood of losing temper and punishment. Within-family mediation suggests that parents' difficulties supporting children's learning, and to a lesser degree their mood and parenting behaviors, partially mediate effects of disruptions on child behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

COVID-19 and Parent-Child Psychological Well-being.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 has changed American society in ways that are difficult to capture in a timely manner. With this study, we take advantage of daily survey data collected before and after the crisis started to investigate the hypothesis that the crisis has worsened parents' and children's psychological well-being. We also examine the extent of crisis-related hardships and evaluate the hypothesis that the accumulation of hardships will be associated with parent and child psychological well-being. METHODS: Daily survey data were collected between February 20 and April 27, 2020, from hourly service workers with a young child (aged 2-7) in a large US city (N = 8222 person-days from 645 individuals). A subsample completed a one-time survey about the effects of the crisis fielded between March 23 and April 26 (subsample n = 561). RESULTS: Ordered probit models revealed that the frequency of parent-reported daily negative mood increased significantly since the start of the crisis. Many families have experienced hardships during the crisis, including job loss, income loss, caregiving burden, and illness. Both parents' and children's well-being in the postcrisis period was strongly associated with the number of crisis-related hardships that the family experienced. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with our hypotheses, in families that have experienced multiple hardships related to the coronavirus disease 2019 crisis, both parents' and children's mental health is worse. As the crisis continues to unfold, pediatricians should screen for mental health, with particular attention to children whose families are especially vulnerable to economic and disease aspects of the crisis.

Effectiveness of Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor in Hospitalized Infants with Neutropenia.

Objective The objective of this study was to determine the time to hematologic recovery and the incidence of secondary sepsis and mortality among neutropenic infants treated or not treated with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Study Design We identified all neutropenic infants discharged from 348 neonatal intensive care units from 1997 to 2012. Neutropenia was defined as an absolute neutrophil count ≤ 1,500/µL for ≥ 1 day during the first 120 days of life. Incidence of secondary sepsis and mortality and number of days required to reach an absolute neutrophil count > 1,500/µL for infants exposed to G-CSF were compared with those of unexposed infants. Results We identified 30,705 neutropenic infants, including 2,142 infants (7%) treated with G-CSF. Treated infants had a shorter adjusted time to hematologic recovery (hazard ratio: 1.36, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.30-1.44) and higher adjusted odds of secondary sepsis (odds ratio [OR]: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.20-1.87), death (OR: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.05-1.68), and the combined outcome of sepsis or death (OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.19-1.67) at day 14 compared with untreated infants. These differences persisted at day 28. Conclusion G-CSF treatment decreased the time to hematologic recovery but was associated with increased odds of secondary sepsis and mortality in neutropenic infants. G-CSF should not routinely be used for infants with neutropenia.