At the Barcelona Institute for Childhood and Adolescence, in April 2020, and coinciding with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we began what we called “monitoring of emergency social research”, in other words, monitoring of those research initiatives promoted on an urgent basis by university research groups and teams from different institutions with the aim of ascertaining the impacts of the pandemic, and the measures taken, on the lives of children and teenagers in order to guarantee their rights.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has made it quite clear: children and teenagers have been physically, emotionally and psychologically affected by measures taken during the start of the pandemic, especially in those countries that declared states of emergency and obligatory lockdowns, as is the case with Spain.
However, the impact of the pandemic on children’s lives and rights will spread far beyond the consequences of the six-week absolute lockdown that was imposed on children and teenagers. For this reason, it is necessary to study the short-term impacts of the lockdown of Spring 2020, but also the impacts in the medium and long term of the absolute lockdown measure, as well as the impacts on children of the so-called “new normal”, with restrictions that are intermittent but prolonged over time. And furthermore, to see how they will be affected by the social and economic crisis resulting from Covid-19.
Here at the Barcelona Institute for Childhood and Adolescence, continuing with our mission of generating and sharing knowledge that can guide public policies and decision-making that affect childhood and adolescence, we will continue to conduct careful monitoring of the impacts of this whole situation on the lives and rights of children in the city.
Covid-19 and Children in Barcelona is a project under the umbrella of the BCN 0-17 Observatory.
Project Team
Laia Pineda (management)
Mari Corominas (research)
Laia Curcoll (publications and communication)
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