Advertisement

General Knowledge and Perception of Portuguese Children About COVID-19

Conference paper
First Online:
  • 81 Downloads
Part of the Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing book series (AISC, volume 1331)

Abstract

The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has not only posed a number of challenges to health systems around the world, but its effects have been devastating on economic, social and political levels. Along with the epidemiological danger of COVID-19, the expansion of disinformation about the pandemic has been a major concern of the World Health Organization (WHO 2019), including among children. Therefore, it is important to ask: what is the knowledge and perception of Portuguese children about COVID-19? Our study’s main objective is to answer this question by assessing how they perceived the epidemiological phenomenon. In order to fulfill our goal, we applied a single questionnaire to a sample of 960 children between three and 11 years old, collected between March 20 and April 21, 2020. The online survey with open-ended questions was disseminated by email through Primary and Preschools from all regions of Portugal, and through Facebook. Subsequently, we carried out a qualitative analysis of the results for which we rely on the IRAMUTEQ software. The study concluded that Portuguese children were, in general, able to identify and define the disease, assess its risk of contagion and the severity it represents for humanity; and that the majority are afraid of the consequences of COVID-19.

Keywords

COVID-19 Children Portugal Knowledge Perception Digital social media 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Austin, E.W., Roberts, D.F., Nass, C.I.: Influences of family communication on children’s television-interpretation processes. Commun. Res. 17(4), 545–564 (1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Camargo, B.V., Justo, A.M.: IRAMUTEQ: Um Software Gratuito Para Análise de Dados Textuais. Temas em Psicologia 21(2) (2013). Sociedade Brasileira de Psicologia, 513–518Google Scholar
  3. Carrilho, M.J.: Crianças e Adolescentes em Portugal. Rev. Estudos Demográficos 55, 53–101 (2015)Google Scholar
  4. Danese, A., Smith, P., Chitsabesan, P., Dubicka, B.: Child and adolescent mental health amidst emergencies and disasters. Br. J. Psychiatry 216(3), 159–162 (2019)Google Scholar
  5. De Cock, R.: Mediating Flemish children’s reactions of fear and sadness to television news and its limitations: survey and in-depth interview results. J. Child. Media 6(4), 485–501 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Dryhurst, S., et al.: Risk perceptions of COVID-19 around the world. J. Risk Res. 23(7–8), 1–13 (2020)Google Scholar
  7. Dubey, S., Dubey, M.J., Ghosh, R., Chatterjee, S.: Children of frontline COVID-19 warriors: our observations. J. Pediatrics 224, 188–289 (2020)Google Scholar
  8. Flavell, J.H.: The development of children’s knowledge about the appearance–reality distinction. Am. Psychol. 41(4), 418 (1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Geldsetzer, P.: Knowledge and perceptions of COVID-19 among the general public in the United States and the United Kingdom: a cross-sectional online survey. Ann. Internal Med. (2020)Google Scholar
  10. Harper, C.A., Satchell, L.P., Fido, D., Latzman, R.D.: Functional fear predicts public health compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic. Int. J. Mental Health Addict. (2020, in press)Google Scholar
  11. Jiao, W.Y., Wang, L.N., Liu, J., Fang, S.F., Jiao, F.Y., Pettoello-Mantovani, M., Somekh, E.: Behavioral and emotional disorders in children during the COVID-19 epidemic. J. Pediatrics 221, 264 (2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Justo, A.M., Camargo, B.V.: Estudos qualitativos e o uso de softwares para análises lexicais. Anais do X Seminário Analítico de Temas Interdisciplinares (Siat) e II Seminário de Pesquisa Inovadora na Formação de Professores (Serpro). Caderno de Artigos. Duque de Caxias: Unigranrio, pp. 37–54 (2014)Google Scholar
  13. Kebede, Y., Yitayih, Y., Birhanu, Z., Mekonen, S., Ambelu, A.: Knowledge, perceptions and preventive practices towards COVID-19 early in the outbreak among Jimma university medical center visitors, Southwest Ethiopia. PloS One 15(5), e0233744 (2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Kim, H.K., Ahn, J., Atkinson, L., Kahlor, L.A.: Effects of COVID-19 misinformation on information seeking, avoidance, and processing: a multicountry comparative study. Sci. Commun. 42(5), 586–615 (2020).  https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547020959670
  15. Knafo, A., Galansky, N.: The influence of children on their parents’ values. Soc. Pers. Psychol. Compass 2(3), 1143–1161 (2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Lemish, D.: What is news? A cross-cultural examination of kindergartners’ understanding of news. Communications 23(4), 491–504 (1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Livingstone, S., Mascheroni, G., Staksrud, E.: European research on children’s internet use: assessing the past and anticipating the future. New Media Soc. 20(3), 1103–1122 (2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Muris, P., van Zwol, L., Huijding, J., Mayer, B.: Mom told me scary things about this animal: parents installing fear beliefs in their children via the verbal information pathway. Behav. Res. Ther. 48(4), 341–346 (2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Ponte, C., Batista, S.: EU Kids Online Portugal. Usos, competências, riscos e mediações da internet reportados por crianças e jovens (9–17 anos). EU Kids Online e NOVA FCSH (2019). https://bit.ly/3mGlAcs
  20. Rodríguez-Rossel, M.M., Melgarejo-Moreno, I.: Usability of smartphones in childhood: case study through photography. Rev. de Comun. SEECI 50, 149–167 (2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Smahel, D., Machackova, H., Mascheroni, G., Dedkova, L., Staksrud, E., Ólafsson, K., Livingstone, S., Hasebrink, U.: EU Kids Online 2020: survey results from 19 countries. EU Kids Online (2020)Google Scholar
  22. Smith, S.L., Moyer-Gusé, E.: Children and the war on Iraq: developmental differences in fear responses to television news coverage. Media Psychol. 8(3), 213–237 (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Smith, S.L., Wilson, B.J.: Children’s comprehension of and fear reactions to television news. Media Psychol. 4(1), 1–26 (2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). How to talk to your child about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (2020)Google Scholar
  25. Valle, M.S., Torres, B.F., Barrio, T.V.: La influencia de los padres en la adquisición de habilidades críticas en Internet. Revista Comunicar 53(25), 103–111 (2019)Google Scholar
  26. Van Bavel, J.J.: Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nat. Hum. Behav. 4, 1–12 (2020)Google Scholar
  27. World Health Organization (WHO). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Myth busters (2019). https://bit.ly/33T45x8
  28. Wright, J.C., Huston, A.C., Reitz, A.L., Piemyat, S.: Young children’s perceptions of television reality: determinants and developmental differences. Dev. Psychol. 30(2), 229 (1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University of Beira InteriorCovilhãPortugal
  2. 2.University of SalamancaSalamancaSpain
  3. 3.University of Beira Interior/LabComCovilhãPortugal

Personalised recommendations

Cite paper

Buy options