The impact of the crisis on children in care is studied
The HERO study looks at the suffering caused by the pandemic in children placed outside their families. In Luxembourg, 1,281 minors and young adults do not grow up at home.
Pandemic in Luxembourg
The HERO study looks at the suffering caused by the pandemic in children placed outside their families. In Luxembourg, 1,281 minors and young adults do not grow up at home.
(BaL with Michèle GANTENBEIN) They are considered particularly vulnerable. Placed children are at the heart of a study, called HERO, which focuses on their experience during these two years of pandemic. And more particularly, to their well-being. While the health crisis has changed the social life of the entire population, children and adolescents are the first to suffer from this situation.
Thus, psychologists, therapists and pediatricians have not ceased to draw attention to the impact of health restrictions on toddlers. Calls that struggle to be heard and to be taken seriously, as the risks for children of developing a serious form of covid-19 are low. They then went off the political and social radar. “They are quickly forgotten as subjects with their own needs”, alerted the German association of pediatricians in May 2020.
One group was more affected by this lack of interest in them. These are children and adolescents living outside their families. In the Grand Duchy, 1,218 grow up outside the family home. Of these, 58% are placed in a home, while 42% live with a foster family. If they are considered vulnerable children, it is because of their difficult personal, family and social situation, which entails a risk of being disadvantaged in the long term.
Overcome the challenges
It is to this particular group that Dr. Pascale Engel de Abreu wishes to give the floor. The developmental psychologist, researcher at the University of Luxembourg, is launching with Dr Cyril Wealer, also a researcher in child psychology at the University of Luxembourg, this study on the mental health of these children during the pandemic in mid -February. This work is also interested in the resilience of this group of young people, that is to say their ability to face the life situations described and to catch up with them.
Through a series of questionnaires, the impact of the pandemic on the well-being of children and the way in which they manage the constraints will be determined. “Children from difficult backgrounds have infinitely more difficulty getting a foothold in life,” explains Pascale Engel. Moreover, studies have shown that it is not uncommon for the children of people who grew up outside their family to experience the same fate with their own children. “To put an end to this vicious circle, we must help these young people,” says the researcher.
For this, the involvement of the whole of society is necessary, from caregivers to researchers, including politicians. If the mental health of children only became a subject of concern during the pandemic, “it is only the tip of an iceberg that we have ignored for too long”, believes Pascale Engel. The psychologist therefore sees it as a chance “to finally do something now, especially since the pandemic has not improved things”.
What is missing is data. There is little on the well-being of children, especially children placed outside their families. A finding that has not escaped the notice of the OECD, in its 2021 report. “We read there that children placed outside their families are barely perceived by the public and that there is a lack of empirical data on the well-being of this group”, explains Pascale Engel. According to the institution, one of the reasons for this lack of data on children is the lack of ambition and creativity of researchers and governments to embark on this field. The OECD therefore calls for greater efforts.
Luxembourg must do more
Luxembourg has study data, so it has not been totally inactive on the subject, “but they concern the general population. Children represented outside their families represent only a small group of all children and remain invisible in national statistics obtained from standard representative surveys. For them, we need specific surveys,” says the psychologist. Luxembourg must therefore do more.
This is also what the United Nations say in their recommendations concerning the implementation of children’s rights. The document states that Luxembourg must expand its data collection system and collect more so that it can study the situation of all children, especially vulnerable children.
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