CIHR: Bishop’s Researchers Studying the Impacts of COVID-19 on Children

To address the health challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) launched, among other competitions, the Operating Grant: Understanding and mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, youth and families in Canada funding opportunity. This program focuses on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions related to associated public health mitigation measures, on the health and well-being of families, children and youth in Canada. Projects supported through this initiative must aim to understand the implications of these events, hopefully allowing mitigation of the challenges, as well as inform policy and the development of approaches to address both recovery and long-term consequences. Two Bishop’s researchers obtained this grant: Dr. Heather Lawford and Dr. Catherine Malboeuf-Hurtubise. This is the first time Bishop’s researchers obtain a CIHR grant as principal investigators.

Dr. Heather Lawford of the Department of Psychology received a CIHR Operation Grant: Understanding and mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, youth and families in Canada for the project Sharing Youth’s Stories of COVID: Youth voice as a basis of understanding the broader impacts of adaptations in youth programming with a focus on micro populations. With colleagues from Brock University, the University of Ottawa and the Students Commission of Canada (SCC), Dr. Lawford will invite Canadian youth from equity-seeking groups to share how COVID-19 and the restrictions it caused affected them. They will explore how unique populations of youth might have been affected in different of similar ways by program and services changes through the pandemic, and how those changes affected their mental and physical health, their growth and development, as well as their relationships. Findings from this study will be shared with decision-makers, policy-makers and youth present at the SCC annual #CanadaWeWant events. One of the great strengths of this project is the partnerships with youth and community organizations to codesign this project and use the findings to serve youth who might be further from opportunity. We are so grateful to CIHR for championing community-based research, says Dr. Heather Lawford.

Dr. Catherine Malboeuf-Hurtubise of the Department of Psychology received a CIHR Operation Grant: Understanding and mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, youth and families in Canada for the project École à Ciel Ouvert: Efficacité d’un programme d’intervention impliquant la nature pour atténuer les impacts des perturbations scolaires liées à la COVID-19 sur la santé mentale et les saines habitudes de vie des enfants et des adolescents. With colleagues from McGill, Université de Montréal, CHU Sainte-Justine, Université de Sherbrooke and Université du Québec en Outaouais, Dr. Malboeuf-Hurtubise will test the effectiveness of an intervention program of outdoor education, called École à Ciel Ouvert, involving contact with nature to reduce mental health problems and improve the level of physical activity of children attending schools across the province. This is a flagship project of the Observatory for Children’s Education and Health, whose mission is to observe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth education and health. We are absolutely thrilled that our project combining outdoor education and nature therapy for elementary school children has been funded. With this province-wide randomized clinical trial, we will be able to evaluate whether spending time in nature while being at school can have a beneficial impact on children’s mental health, says Dr. Catherine Malboeuf-Hurtubise about the project.

We wish to congratulate both successful applicants and hope to continue this success for many years to come! Follow both Dr. Lawford and Dr. Malboeuf-Hurtubise on Twitter for updates on their research.