Research
The proposed Research Platform For Understanding Child Development, Health, and Education (observatoire pour L’éducation et la santé des enfants, OPES) will be a secure infrastructure for epidemiological studies linking data from administrative and research databases. Data will be de-identified such that individual participants will not be identifiable.
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The objectives of the education axis ares:
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The objectives of the mental health and well being axis ares:
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The objectives of the infections and immunity axis are:
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The objectives of the healthy lifestyle axis are:
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The objectives of the economic development axis are:
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The objectives of the social innovation axis are:
Short-term: To monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents in order to inform decision-making.
Medium- and long-term: To advance knowledge, researching innovative topics such as the impact of parental and child stress on family relations, academic achievement, mental health, and psychosocial adaptation; the role of inflammatory markers, immune response; differential susceptibility and genetic predisposition, healthcare services utilization; effects of the pandemic associated with loss of family income and reliance on the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and/or employment insurance; and effects of the pandemic associated with primary residence (geographic area or city district). This extensive database will also facilitate studies on the effectiveness of educational or psychosocial remedial/tutorial services to ensure optimal selection of services in the future. The COVID-19 biobank created by the FRQ will serve as a model for the creation of a more diversified data- and biobank.
The social benefits of the proposed infrastructure go well beyond COVID-19 related research and decisions; they extend to any number of unforeseen events or afflictions that the future may hold in store. This platform is therefore an investment that will substantially increase knowledge to facilitate administrative decision-making for the well-being of the population in the short, medium and long term.
Our interdisciplinary knowledge mobilization plan follows best practice guidelines and will deliver high quality evidence to multiple audiences. If effective, this plan has the potential to be included in the Government of Quebec’s digital mental health strategy in the short term.
Our 20 years of collaboration with the Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Development will enable effective execution of our knowledge mobilization. The plan was studied at three levels:
For our knowledge transfer, we target five types of audience:
The project will take place in two phases and will evaluate two cohorts of children assessed by the ISQ as part of the school readiness survey.
Survey on psychosocial development (mental health) at the end of the school year 2020-2021 ;
Assessment of learning during the school year 2021-2022.
ADOLESCENTS COHORT
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Born in 2004-2005, assessed in kindergarten in 2011.
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Data collection from 10,000 young people for psychosocial and school functioning.
The questionnaire, completed online by teens, will take 15 minutes to be completed.
PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN COHORT
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Born in 2010-2011, assessed in kindergarten in 2017.
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Data collection from teachers who assess children’s psychosocial and academic functioning.
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Population-based and longitudinal studies of children’s learning and psychosocial development
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Follow ups of participants assessed prior to march 2020
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Seroprevalence studies
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COVID-19 transmission in schools
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