DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-8900-1
title: COVID-19: Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics (Co-SPACE), 2020-2021
title: Co-SPACE study

description: &lt;p&gt;The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to families' lives in many ways, including through lockdowns, social distancing, home learning requirements, and restrictions. This resulted in a rapidly changing situation where different pressures have arisen for children, young people and their families over time. &lt;span class="x_x_x_x_x_normaltextrun"&gt;Understanding the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and young people, through the collection of high quality data and in a way that could directly inform policy, was set out as an immediate research priority in a Lancet position paper (&lt;a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30168-1/fulltext" target="_blank"&gt;Holmes et al., 2020&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="x_x_x_x_x_normaltextrun"&gt; at the start of the pandemic.  &lt;/span&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Co-SPACE&lt;/span&gt; study was launched on 30th March 2020, a week after the first national lockdown was implemented in the UK, with the purpose of using the findings to inform resources and support for families.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The Co-SPACE project aimed to:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;track participating children and young people’s mental health throughout the COVID-19 crisis &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;identify what protects children and young people from deteriorating mental health (over time, and at particular stress points)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;determine how this varies according to child, family and environmental characteristics.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Co-SPACE&lt;/span&gt; study, overall, involved an online longitudinal survey completed monthly by (i) UK-based parents/carers of children and young people (aged 4-16 years, at the start of the study), and (ii) their children (if aged 11-16 years, at the start of the study). To develop a richer understanding of people’s experiences, qualitative interviews were also conducted with parents/carers, young people, and people who work with them. The current data available includes parent/carer reported survey data only.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The study was designed and conducted with rapid and meaningful stakeholder involvement, including through in-depth discussion with advisory groups of experts, young people, and parents/carers.  Parent/carer and young people's involvement was facilitated through the &lt;a href="https://emergingminds.org.uk/" target="_blank"&gt;UKRI Emerging Minds Research Network Plus&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;In addition to the Principal Investigators, contributors to the study were as follows: Praveetha Patalay, UCL; Helen Dodd, University of Exeter; Pete Lawrence, University of Southampton; Simona Skripkauskaite, University of Oxford; Samantha Pearcey, University of Oxford; Adrienne Shum, University of Oxford; Amy McCall, University of Oxford; Olly Robertson, University of Oxford; Bettina Moltrecht, UCL; Eoin McElroy, Ulster University.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Further information, including research reports, are available from the &lt;a href="https://cospaceoxford.org/" target="_blank"&gt;Co-SPACE&lt;/a&gt; project website.&lt;/p&gt;