Title: An Interdisciplinary Child Well-Being Network (ICWBN) to study the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children in Ireland and the United Kingdom
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: This project will bring together academic and non-academic child well-being experts from the Republic of Ireland and the four nations of the UK to establish a new research network. The Interdisciplinary Child Well-Being Network (ICWBN) will investigate the medium- and longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for children's well-being in the two countries and beyond. The ICWBN will be in place early enough to map out evidence gaps, elucidate areas for interdisciplinary collaboration and propose an ambitious cross-country comparative research agenda for the next five years. The project has two research objectives: 1) To establish the Interdisciplinary Child Well-Being Network (ICWBN). The project will bring together academic and non-academic child well-being experts from the UK and Ireland, both face-to-face and virtually. It will not only facilitate collaboration across different social science disciplines (sociology, demography, social policy, education, law, psychology, and economics) but will also provide a platform for communicating their research and advocacy activities to diverse non-specialist audiences through a new website and social media. The project website will host blogs, podcasts, and webinars by the network members and other experts to share the findings and implications of their ongoing work on the impact of COVID-19 on children. The ICWBN Twitter account will be set up to disseminate news and findings on the impact of COVID-19 on children in the UK, Ireland, and beyond, as well as to engage in relevant discussions with specialist and non-specialist audiences. The ICWBN, the project website, and the Twitter account will be maintained beyond the lifetime of the project. The team will also prepare a policy brief (published by the ESRC Centre for Population Change) highlighting the importance of focusing on child well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2) To develop an interdisciplinary research agenda for promoting child well-being: a) To understand the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated containment measures, including school closures, for children and their families from an interdisciplinary social science perspective, using emerging data (e.g. from the UK Household Longitudinal Study). b) To map potential direct and indirect causal pathways between the COVID-19 crisis and children's outcomes in health, education and subjective well-being across the life course. c) To propose policy measures to cushion the negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children as they grow older. First, the project team will organise a virtual 'core group' meeting to discuss the ongoing and future research plans of the core network, and to seek out collaborative interdisciplinary funding opportunities for studying the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on children. Second, a one-day workshop in Dublin will help establish new connections between network members, discuss their ongoing and planned research related to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children's outcomes, and to set out the aims and objectives of a large collaborative grant proposal to be submitted jointly by the network members in late 2021. Finally, the project team will meet in St Andrews to facilitate the writing of the joint grant proposal. The ICWBN will be in place when new representative survey data on the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on children and their families become available (e.g. the UK Household Longitudinal Survey COVID-19 supplement). Hence, the network will be well-positioned to put together a competitive large grant application to understand and mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on children's lives by analysing existing data and collecting new primary qualitative and quantitative data. This project will be among the first to study the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on child well-being outcomes in the UK and Ireland.

Lay abstract: CONTEXT: The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented challenge for the UK and Ireland. Although children are less likely to develop a severe form of COVID-19, they are uniquely vulnerable to its social and economic consequences. The measures put in place to curb the spread of the virus, such as school closures and stay-at-home orders, are likely to exacerbate socio-economic inequalities among children and their families. Families with children suffered some of the worst consequences of the economic crisis and austerity ten years ago, in both the UK and Ireland. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit both countries at a time when child poverty rates were already high. Nearly one in five children under 18 in Ireland and one in four in the UK were at risk of poverty in 2018. AIMS & OBJECTIVES: This project will establish a network of academic and non-academic experts on child well-being from across the UK and Ireland. The new Interdisciplinary Child Well-Being Network (ICWBN) will study the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for children's living standards as well as their outcomes in health, development, educational achievement and life satisfaction as they grow older. The network will pool theories, evidence and methodological approaches from across the social sciences. The project has two key research objectives: 1) To establish the Interdisciplinary Child Well-Being Network (ICWBN) The project will bring together academic and non-academic child well-being experts from the UK and Ireland, both virtually and face-to-face. It will not only facilitate collaboration between network members from across different social science disciplines, but will also provide a platform for communicating their research and advocacy activities to diverse non-specialist audiences through a new website (blogs, podcasts, webinars) and social media (Twitter). The team will also prepare a policy brief highlighting the importance of focusing on child well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2) To develop an interdisciplinary research agenda for promoting child well-being: a) To understand the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated containment measures, including school closures, for children and their families from an interdisciplinary social science perspective. b) To map potential direct and indirect pathways between the COVID-19 crisis and children's outcomes in health, education and subjective well-being across the life course. c) To propose policy measures to cushion the negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children as they grow older. First, the project team will organise a virtual 'core group' meeting to discuss the ongoing and future research plans of the core network and to seek out collaborative interdisciplinary funding opportunities for studying the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on children. Second, a one-day workshop in Dublin will help establish new connections between network members, discuss their ongoing and planned research related to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children's outcomes, and to set out the aims and objectives of a large collaborative grant proposal to be submitted jointly in late 2021. Finally, the project team will meet in St Andrews to facilitate the writing of the joint grant proposal. POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS: The ICWBN will be well-placed to document research gaps, elucidate areas for interdisciplinary collaboration and create an ambitious research agenda for joint grant applications. The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children and their families is likely to hold a central place in European and UK policy and discourse for years to come. The results of this project will inform academics, practitioners, policy makers, and the general public about the longer-term consequences of the crisis for children's lives. The findings of this project will point towards policies to mitigate the negative effects of the crisis.

Research activity codes: 2.6 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (AETIOLOGY);3.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (PREVENTION)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE;INFECTION