OUR PROJECTS

Resilience Study : A longitudinal study on child development during the pandemic

Why study child development during the pandemic ?

COVID-19 disrupted children’s school and home lives, with impacts that varied depending on their individual circumstances and socioeconomic backgrounds.

While some children demonstrated resilience, others—particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds—experienced increased academic and psychosocial challenges.

This study aimed to understand these effects, assess the impact of inequality, and identify solutions to mitigate the pandemic’s consequences on children’s learning and mental health.

Study objectives

The follow-up of children from EQDEM transformed this large-scale population survey — originally involving over 80,000 children assessed in 2017 — into a longitudinal study. In the short term, data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic aimed to document the experiences of children and families at home and at school, while identifying the most vulnerable populations. In the long term, the study will assess the impacts of pandemic-related disruptions and the effectiveness of initiatives designed to strengthen children’s resilience.

The study was divided into three components :

01

Learning

Conducted in winter 2021 with 12,000 children aged 9–10, this component evaluated Grade 4 students’ reading skills and compared the results with those from 2019, before the pandemic.

02

Families

Conducted in summer 2021 with 4,500 parents of children aged 9–10, this component documented family dynamics during the pandemic, the impact of public health measures, academic support, and the mental health of both children and parents.

03

Teachers

Conducted in spring 2022 with teachers of 8,800 Grade 5 students (aged 10–11), this component aimed to document children’s academic and psychosocial functioning from the teachers’ perspective.