NIH Program Study Links COVID-19 Pandemic Hardships to Child Life Satisfaction

Posted on March 18, 2022May 19, 2023 by Jodi Snare

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Families who faced more hardships related to the COVID-19 pandemic had higher levels of both caregiver and child stress and lower child life satisfaction, according to a new National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study. However, being more socially connected and engaged with family promoted life satisfaction for children of all ages.

The study included more than 1,600 families from 30 U.S. states. For younger children, family engagement decreased the negative effect of COVID-19 pandemic-related stress on life satisfaction. For adolescents, pre-existing anxiety and/or depression increased their risk for lower life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Courtney K. Blackwell, Ph.D. of Northwestern University, an investigator in the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, led this collaborative research effort. The article, titled “Youth well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic,” is published in Pediatrics.

The researchers used survey data from 14 ECHO cohorts across the U.S. to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related family hardships on caregiver and child stress, and understand how stress, social connection, family engagement, and pre-existing mental health conditions affect children’s life satisfaction.

“The findings demonstrate ways families can cope with adverse events and promote their children’s well-being through family engagement and fostering peer social connectedness,” Blackwell said. “They also show that stress and well-being are not direct opposites, suggesting the need for future interventions that target both decreasing children’s stress and improving their well-being.”

Blackwell, C. et al. Youth well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pediatrics. DOI 10.1542/peds.2021-054754 (2022)

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About ECHO: ECHO is a nationwide research program supported by the NIH. Launched in 2016, ECHO aims to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. The program consists of two major components, including 69 existing and ongoing observational study cohorts and a pediatric clinical trials network. For more information, visit echochildren.org.

About the NIH: NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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ECHO Researchers Investigate Youth Well-being During Covid-19

Posted on March 18, 2022December 5, 2023 by Jodi Snare

Between May 2020 and May 2021, ECHO conducted collaborative research led by Person Reported Outcomes (PRO) Core investigator Courtney K. Blackwell, PhD of Northwestern University to investigate COVID-19 pandemic-related family hardships associated with child stress and well-being. This research, titled “Youth well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic,” is published in Pediatrics.

The results of this study demonstrated that families who faced more hardships related to the COVID-19 pandemic had higher levels of both caregiver and child stress and lower child life satisfaction. However, being more socially connected to peers and engaging in family activities led to higher life satisfaction overall. The researchers found that for younger children, family engagement decreased the negative effect of COVID-19 pandemic-related stress on their life satisfaction. For adolescents, pre-existing anxiety and/or depression increased their risk for lower life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, families have faced hardships and interruptions to their daily lives. These disruptions are likely to have a lasting effect on the well-being of children, but the extent of this effect is still unknown. Additionally, little is known about how families can protect their children from COVID-19 pandemic-related stress and promote their positive mental health.

To conduct this research, Dr. Blackwell and her team surveyed more than 1,600 families from 30 US states about their COVID-19 pandemic experience. This study included both parent-reported surveys on children aged 2-12 years and self-reported surveys on adolescents aged 11-17 years. The researchers used survey data from 14 ECHO cohorts across the US to evaluate how COVID-19 pandemic-related family hardships have affected caregiver and child stress, and how stress, social connection, family engagement, and pre-existing mental health conditions have affected children’s life satisfaction.

The study findings demonstrate some of the varied ways that families can cope with adverse events and promote their children’s well-being through family engagement and fostering peer social connectedness. “This study also showed that stress and well-being are not direct opposites,” said Dr. Blackwell, “suggesting the need for future interventions that target both decreasing children’s stress and improving their well-being rather than one or the other.”

The next steps for this research include focusing in on specific COVID-19-related family hardships in order to identify the hardships that contribute the most to child stress and develop targeted strategies for improving child well-being.

Read the research summary.

New ECHO Research Investigates Relationship between Chronic Health Conditions and Children’s Positive Health

Posted on February 21, 2022December 5, 2023 by Jodi Snare

Collaborative ECHO research led by Julia Schuchard, PhD of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia studied the association between chronic physical or mental health conditions and children’s assessment of their own well-being, also referred to as positive health. The findings show that many children and adolescents with chronic health conditions have similar levels of positive health as their peers without chronic conditions. The team’s research, titled “Influences of chronic physical and mental health conditions on child and adolescent positive health,” is published in Academic Pediatrics.

For this study, researchers gathered 1,764 children aged 8 to 17 from 13 ECHO cohorts across the U.S. and asked them about their physical, mental, and social health and life satisfaction. The children’s parents also provided information on their child’s chronic health conditions, including physical (e.g., asthma, chronic pain, motor problems), developmental (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay, learning disabilities), and mental (e.g., depression, anxiety) health conditions. Around 54% of children participating in the study had some form of chronic health condition.

The results of this study suggest that mental health conditions such as depression in childhood may be a primary driver of decreased well-being and life satisfaction among children with chronic health conditions. “The symptoms of physical health conditions and developmental disorders may last for years or even a lifetime,” said Dr. Schuchard, “but it is possible that negative effects on life satisfaction could be minimized by preventing and treating mental health problems.”

More research is needed to identify the best mental health interventions for improving positive health outcomes among children with chronic health conditions. Effective interventions may include increasing the availability of mental health assessments and screening children and adolescents with chronic health conditions for depression more frequently.

“Examining the effects of interventions like these on positive health outcomes has the potential to shift perspectives around health” said Dr. Schuchard, “highlighting the importance of promoting children’s mental health and well-being.”

Read the Research Summary.

Forrest/Ganiban: More than the Absence of Disease: Studying Positive Health in ECHO

More than the Absence of Disease: Studying Positive Health in ECHO

Speaker:

Chris Forrest, MD, PhD

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Jody Ganiban, PhD

George Washington University

Speaker Bios: Chris Forrest is a Pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Director of the Applied Clinical Research Center. Dr. Forrest’s research focuses on developing novel ways of conducting multi-center pediatric applied clinical research and life course health science. He co-chairs the Positive Health Work Group within ECHO and is a member of the ECHO PRO core.

Dr. Ganiban’s early research focused on parent-child attachment relationships and child temperament, and development within groups of children that differed in their genetic, temperamental, or environmental risks for emotional and behavioral problems. Dr. Ganiban’s research has incorporated behavioral genetic research techniques to examine further the interplay between environmental factors and personal characteristics in determining children’s and parents’ emotional and physical health. Her recent projects include assessments of personality, temperament, and genetic makeup.

Topic:

Positive health is one of the five outcome priority areas for ECHO. It refers to having a state of physical, mental, and social well-being, and broadens our view of health as more than the absence of disease. In this presentation, we will present the science of positive health and ways to study it within ECHO.

Date: Wednesday, August 12, 1 to 2pm

Slides

ECHO Researchers Learn How Children’s Sleep Quality Is Associated With Overall Life Satisfaction

Posted on June 1, 2020June 7, 2023 by Jodi Snare

Updated July 21, 2020

Most sleep research focuses on how poor sleep may cause health problems. Taking a different approach, ECHO researcher Courtney Blackwell and her team recently conducted a study to determine how better sleep quality may lead to positive health outcomes. In an article published in Quality of Life Research, Blackwell and team found that better sleep quality in school-age children was associated with lower psychological stress and better general health status, which in turn, predicted better life satisfaction

“Existing literature primarily focuses on the negative impacts of sleep. Our team is excited to contribute to the growing body of research on associations of sleep quality on children’s positive well-being,” said Blackwell.

To conduct this study, ECHO researchers asked parents and caregivers to complete surveys about their children’s sleep quality, general health, stress, and life satisfaction. More than 1,000 caregivers of 5- to 9-year-old children from three ECHO Cohorts participated in this study, creating a diverse population that none of the Cohorts offered individually.

Overall, this study suggests that children whose sleep quality is better experience higher levels of life satisfaction.

For more information, read the study summary.

New ECHO-funded Research Shows Chronic Illnesses in Children Do Not Necessarily Lead to Dissatisfaction

Posted on May 9, 2019June 7, 2023 by Jodi Snare

The ECHO researchers’ findings suggest that children with chronic illnesses are just as happy as their peers who do not have chronic illnesses.

The May 2019 issue of Pediatrics published findings from a recent study by ECHO researchers Courtney Blackwell, Amy Elliott, Jody Ganiban, Julie Herbstman, Kelly Hunt, Chris Forrest, and Carlos Camargo. The publication, titled “General Health and Life Satisfaction in Children With Chronic Illness,” focuses on children’s general health and life satisfaction in the context of chronic illness.

The study found that while children with chronic illnesses have worse health overall, their life satisfaction was comparable with that of their peers without chronic illnesses, suggesting that children with chronic illnesses may still lead happy lives.

As reported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the authors noted, “the current study suggests that having a chronic illness is certainly a health challenge (evidenced by lower parent-reported general health) but does not preclude these children from having happy and satisfying lives that are comparable with those of peers without illness.”

This multi-cohort study evaluated results from questionnaires completed by 1113 caregivers completed on behalf of 1253 children aged 5-9 years with illnesses such as asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and digestive disorders. The study used the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Parent-Proxy measures for Global Health and Life Satisfaction.

Consistent with one of the primary goals of ECHO to leverage existing cohorts through harmonization of extant data and standardization of newly collected data, this study evaluated data from existing cohorts associated with the ECHO Program, with a specific focus on ECHO’s Positive Health outcome area.

“Overall, this work highlights clinical opportunities to broaden the perspective of health beyond the absence of disease to one in which all children, regardless of illness or impairment, can have well-being,” the authors said.

Read the full article to learn more.

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Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes

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