Background
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds across the globe, there is an urgent need to understand adolescents’ experiences as their lives have been shifted. This includes exploring potential challenges with COVID containment measures for young people, the developmental ramifications of isolation, and educational impacts of closing schools. As the pandemic recedes, young people living in poor urban communities are also likely to face long-term economic ramifications, potentially altering their educational aspirations and negatively affecting their health and wellbeing.
Study Aims
Building on GEAS research platform, this mixed-methods study addresses the following questions:
How do adolescents experience social distancing and educational disruptions?
How are their families economically impacted?
What types of supports do adolescents need to cope with COVID-19 and its aftermath?
And ultimately, what is the impact of COVID on young people's health and wellbeing including their mental health and their educational and social prospects.
We seek to understand how these experiences and the repercussions of COVID-19 vary according to gender, and across sites, given the different social and cultural models of COVID-19 response. As part of the GEAS longitudinal research, we also hope to understand how these COVID-19 experiences may have longer term effects on young peoples’ social, economic and health trajectories, including their sexual and reproductive health.
Methods
We are conducting an innovative multisite mixed-method study in 8 urban poor communities across 5 continents, using the existing research infrastructure of the Global Early Adolescent Study. The mode of data collection in each site was either remote or online depending on the state of COVID-19 at the time of the survey. The COVID-19 module is being implemented in the following urban poor communities: Shanghai (China), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)); Ghent and Antwerpen (Belgium), Semarang and Denpasar (Indonesia); New Orleans (USA), Blantyre (Malawi), Nairobi (Kenya), and Santiago (Chile).
For questions about our COVID-19 research, please contact us at GEAStudy@jhu.edu
Resources
Partner Organization Resources
Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs
COVID-19 Communications Network
KAP COVID (Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices)
Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health
Family Planning & Reproductive Health Community-Contributed COVID-19 Resources
Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA)
COVID-19 Agile Study and Survey
Center for Health Security
COVID-19 Resources and Updates