Children and young people are experiencing the impact of COVID-19, and lockdown, in many ways - from their education to staying at home with family, from the way they access health and support services to their emotional health and wellbeing. We're compiling studies across the UK that are collecting children and young people's experiences and insights.
Last modified
25 January 2021
Post date
26 May 2020
Table of contents
If there are any issues with the links, errors or new surveys that should be featured, please contact and_us@rcpch.ac.uk.
Introduction
Children and young people are experiencing and feeling the impact of COVID-19 in a number of different ways - from changes to their education to staying home with families, changes to the way health services support them as well as changes to their emotional health and wellbeing.
Across the UK they have been sharing their insights with several charities, organisations and academic institutes about living through lockdown and COVID-19. These valuable, real life experiences need to be viewed alongside scientific and medical data sets, in order to effectively plan for services over the coming months.
The voices of children and young people are central to recovery planning, with RCPCH supporting clinicians, services and settings to understand their needs by collating surveys and insight from a range of external organisations and charities that have captured the voice and views of children, young people, young adults and their families.
You can keep children and young people’s voice at the centre of informing and influencing service design and delivery, by reviewing the surveys, interrogating the data and including children and young people’s voice to enhance your plans, position statements or journal articles by. Publications will then better reflect and reference the voice and views of children and young people alongside medical and scientific data.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
We are compiling studies that are collecting the experiences and insights of children and young people (up to 25 years) within the UK.
Inclusion criteria:
- Include views from children, young people and young adults aged 0–25 years
- In English language
- Relate to views from the UK
- Are conducted in 2020
- Use method(s) appropriate to children and young people
Exclusion criteria:
- Include views from adult (over 25 years) and children/young people/young adult (up to 25 years) data where the data for 0-25 years cannot be extracted
- Include fewer than 25 responses from children/young people/young adults
- Do not include primary responses from children, young people or young adults
Completed studies
| Study | Location | Age range | Target group | Total responses | Lead organisation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To Lockdown and Back (Growing up Under COVID) | UK (and compared to other countries) | 14-18 | Young people | 40 UK 30 international | ECORYS, University of Huddersfield |
| COVID-19 and living with HIV | UK | young people | children and young people with experience of living with HIV | 31 | CHIVA |
| Cancer and Coronavirus: as tough as it gets | UK | Children and young people | 80 young people + 184 parents | CLIC Sargent | |
| Chronic illness and Coronavirus (PDF) | UK | Young people with chronic illness experience | TBC | RAiISE | |
| Child/Young person (living with overweigh or obesity) service user survey (PDF) | UK | 4-15 (parents/carers) 16-17 | Children and young people with obesity experience | 21 included due to specialist voice | University of Leeds |
| Co-SPACE Covid-19: supporting parents, adolescents and children during epidemics) | UK | 11-16 | Parents and young people (parents must complete/consent first) | 1300 | University of Oxford |
| CCopeY: Young people's mental health and coping styles during and after COVID-19 lockdown | UK | 16-24 | Young people | 796 | Imperial College |
| TeenCovidLife | Scotland | 12-17 | Young people | 5548 | University of Edinburgh |
| Our views on COVID-19 | UK | 14-18 | Young people | 1000 | British Science Association |
| Our voices speaking truth to power (PDF) | NI | 11-25 | Young people | 2545 | NI Youth Forum |
| Stress among children in England during the Coronavirus lockdown | England | 8-17 | Children and young people | 3851 | Office of the Children's Commissioner for England |
| What challenges have young people who face inequalities experienced during the Covid-19 lockdown? | England | 10-25 | Young people from LGBTQ+, Gypsy, Traveller and Roma and Young Carer communities | 31 | Association of Young Peoples Health |
| Young People's Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic | South West England | 13-14 | Young people | 1047 | University of Bristol |
| Some sort of normal (return to school experiences) | England | 8-17 | Children and young people | 1500 | Office of the Children's Commissioner for England |
| Mental health of children and young people in England
| England | 5-22 | Children and young people | 3570 | Lifestyles Team NHS Digital |
| Living through a lockdown - reflections and recommendations from young people at risk of serious violence | England | 14-25 | Young people at risk of youth violence | 41 | Redthread, Streetdoctors, MAC-UK |
| Checking in: voices of young people during lockdown (PDF) | London | 14-24 | Young people | 157 | Partnership for Young London, Good Thinking |
| Children's experiences of physical activity in lockdown | England | 7-16 | Children and young people | 1164 | Sport England |
| Back on Track: supporting young people out of lockdown | England and Wales | 11-16 | Young people | 1009 | YMCA |
| Life on Hold (PDF) | UK | Children and young people | 2150 | Children's Society | |
| Teenagers’ experiences of life in lockdown (TELL) Caring for your wellbeing (PDF) | UK | 16-19 | Young people | 100 | University of Manchester |
| My Future, My Feelings, My Family | UK | 12-25 | Young carers | 961 | Carers Trust |
| Coronavirus: Impact on Young People with Mental Health Needs | UK | 13-25 | Young people with mental health experience | 4,258 | Young Minds |
| How to build back better: listening to the voices of our young people | Scotland | 13-18 | Young people facing disadvantage | 1,347 | MCR Pathways |
| Devalued by forces beyond our control | UK | 13-25 | Young people supported by Barnardos | 113 | Barnardo's |
| Online harms | UK | 16-23 | Young people | 22 included due to specialist voice | Catch22 |
| Children’s information on coronavirus | UK | 7-12 | Children | 150 | Edge Hill University |
| You-COPE: Mental health consequences experienced by young people aged 16-24 during first months of the COVID-19 lockdown | UK | 16-24 | Young people | 1,507 | University College London, / University of Sussex/ Imperial College London |
| Mental health and COVID-19: In our own words | UK | 7-24 | Children and young people | 4,000 | Barnardos / HYPE Bristol / HYPE Plymouth, Article 12, TIGER |
| Cancer x coronavirus: the impact on young people | UK | 13-30 | Cancer experienced young people | 118 | Teenage Cancer Trust |
| #ScotYouthandCovid Children and young people’s participation in crisis | Scotland | 10-16 | Young people | 25 | A Place in Childhood |
| Spend time with me: children and young people’s experiences of COVID-19 and the justice system | Scotland | Young people with youth justice experience | 48 | Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice | |
| LockdownLowdown - what young people in Scotland are thinking about COVID-19 (PDF) | Scotland | 11-25 | Young people | 2,400 | -YouthLink Scotland Young Scot Scottish Youth Parliament |
| How are you doing? | Scotland | 8-14 | Young people | 3,698 | Children's Parliament |
| Our voices aren’t in lockdown | Northern Ireland | 11-25 | Young people | 780 | NI Youth Forum |
| Impact of lockdown on young people (PDF) | UK | 14-25 | Young people | 9,913 | Duke of Edinburgh Award |
| Take the temperature | UK | 14-25 | Young people | 1,500 | Beatfreeks Youth Trends |
| Impact of COVID-19 on girls and young women | UK | 4-18 | Girls and young women | 7,000 | GirlGuiding UK |
| Young people in lockdown | 16-25 | Young people | 1,022 | Princes Trust / YouGov | |
| Needs of young people through COVID (PDF) | Under 18 | Young people | 55 | Diana Award | |
| Impact of lockdown on young people (PDF) | UK | 13-24 | Young people | 2,002 | University of Sheffield |
| The Oxford ARC study: achieving resilience during COVID-19 (PDF) | UK | 13-18 | Young people | 321 | University of Oxford |
| Coronavirus and me | Wales | 3-7 7-18 | Children and young people | 23.719 | Children's Commissioner Wales |
| Cost of the school day during COVID-19 | UK | Children and young people | 1,400 | Child Poverty Action Group | |
| Happen at home | Wales | 8-11 | Children | 1,000 | Primary School Network Wales |
| The experience of the coronavirus lockdown in low income families in England and Wales | England and Wales | 16-19 | Young people | 188 | StreetGames |
| Reimagining the future of paediatric care post-COVID-19 - a reflective report of rapid learning | UK | 9-25 | Children and young people | 57 | RCPCH |
| You-Cope Disruptions experienced by young people aged 16-24 during first months of the COVID-19 lockdown | UK | 18-24 | Young adults | 1,274 | University College London / University of Sussex/ Imperial College London |
| A survey of the effects of lock-down due to corona-virus on students in primary and secondary schools (PDF) | Sheffield | 5-15 | Children and young people | 162 | Sarah Jannat Iqbal, Year-6 student at Avicenna Academy, Sheffield |
| Understanding the needs of young carers in the context of the covid-19 global pandemic (PDF) | East Anglia/West Berkshire | 12-22 | Children and young people | 20 included here due to specialist voice | University of East Anglia |
| My Health, Our Future – At Home (PDF) updated report | Suffolk | 6-25 | Children and Young people | 3,000 | Healthwatch Suffolk |
| Life in lockdown | UK | 11-21 | Young people | 60 | Power2 |
| Youth In lockdown (PDF) | Essex | 9-25 | Young people | 202 | ECVYS |
Ongoing studies - open
| Study | Location | Age range | Target group | Lead organisation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COVID-19 Peer Support | UK | 16-18 | Young People | Wellcome, University of Oxford |
| Investigating mental health in autistic young people during the COVID-19 Pandemic | UK | 15-19 | Young people with Autism | Kings College London |
| Life for young people in lockdown | North East England | 14-30 | Young people | University of Durham |
| Coronavirus and autistic children and young people | UK | Children and young people | Ambitious About Autism | |
| Psychological responses to the climate and COVID-19 crises in young people, and their agency to build the world they hope to see | UK | 16-24 | Young adults | Imperial College London |
| Corona Chronicles - Children researching their everyday lives, education and relationships during the coronavirus pandemic (CHEER) | Yorkshire and Humber, England | 9-11 | Children | University of Huddersfield |
| Young trans and gender diverse lives’ in the UK: the mental health impact of COVID-19 | UK | 16-25 | Trans/gender diverse | Nottingham Trent University |
| What is it like to be a teenager or young adult in a global pandemic? (PDF) | UK | 11-18 (25 with SEND) | Young people | NCB |
| Understanding the needs of young adults following the COVID-19 pandemic | UK | 16+ | Young people / young adults | NIHR Maudlsey Biomedical Research Centre, Kings College London |
| Citizen enquiry into COVID-19 | UK | Young people | No lead organisation | |
| #Eco-capabilities: wellbeing before and after the pandemic | Cambridgeshire | 7-8 | Four classes of Y3 children from two primary schools in new areas of high deprivation | Anglia Ruskin University |
| UK | 12-25 | Long term condition patients | University of Southampton Teaching Hospitals with a number of condition specific partners |
| Born in Bradford study | Bradford | 5-18 | Bradford school age children and young people | Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
| CAMHS in South London survey | South London/Maudsley | Young people | CAHMS service users | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust |
| Young people’s emotional health & wellbeing coronavirus survey | Hull | 10-25 | Young people | Hull City Council |
Ongoing studies - awaiting results
| Study | Location | Age range | Target group | Lead organisation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exploring experiences of life at home during lockdown for young people in care | UK | Young people | Research in Practice / TACT | |
| Keeping well in a COVID-19 crisis | UK | 16+ | Mental health service users | King's College London |
| Impact of COVID-19 on outdoor learning among children | UK | Early years - 16 | Children and young people, parents, workforce | University of Hull |
| CONTRAST study | UK | 11-15 | Young people | Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham |
| #CovidUnder19 - life under coronavirus | UK / Global | 8-17 | Children and young people | Queen’s University Belfast and global partners |
| Identifying and supporting 'off-radar' children and young people at risk of violence and abuse | UK | 16+ | Experience of abuse at home | Kings College London |
| Social media and mental health | UK | 16-24 | Young people | University of Manchester |
| Youth services in Brighton & Hove | Brighton & Hove | 11-25 | Young people | Brighton & Hove City Council |
| Young people and lockdown | Newcastle | Young people | YPAGNe |