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The Observatory for Children’s Education and Health is a center coordinating research on the short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, and on the identification of mitigating strategies for the post-pandemic recovery in Quebec.

History
The observatory was created by the Fond de recherche du Québec - Society and Culture in December 2020 with a $ 5 million fund in order to generate new knowledge in order to inform decision-making promoting education, health and economic well-being of children in Quebec, in the short and long term. The Observatory was officially launched on November 4, 2021 at the CHU Sainte-Justine research center, the second largest pediatric care center in North America, and it collaborates with the Institut de la statistique du Québec, the Ministry of Education of Quebec and the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec.

Context
The COVID-19 pandemic has been disrupting the lives of children since March 2020 in Québec. The closure of schools and the disruption of school rhythms caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will have more or less significant consequences depending on the children's previous educational and psychosocial trajectory and the extent of the personal and family stress experienced. There are likely to be a variety of responses to the pandemic context in children. For example, the majority of children did not have academic and emotional difficulties before the pandemic and probably will not have any more difficulties in the future, but for other children, the extended absence in school may have exacerbated already existing difficulties, or on the contrary, had beneficial effects.

Objectives
Short-term: To monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents in order to inform decision-making.

Medium- and long-term: To advance knowledge, researching innovative topics such as the impact of parental and child stress on family relations, academic achievement, mental health, and psychosocial adaptation; the role of inflammatory markers, immune response; differential susceptibility and genetic predisposition, healthcare services utilization; effects of the pandemic associated with loss of family income and reliance on the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and/or employment insurance; and effects of the pandemic associated with primary residence (geographic area or city district). This extensive database will also facilitate studies on the effectiveness of educational or psychosocial remedial/tutorial services to ensure optimal selection of services in the future. The COVID-19 biobank created by the FRQ will serve as a model for the creation of a more diversified data- and biobank.

The social benefits of the proposed infrastructure go well beyond COVID-19 related research and decisions; they extend to any number of unforeseen events or afflictions that the future may hold in store. This platform is therefore an investment that will substantially increase knowledge to facilitate administrative decision-making for the well-being of the population in the short, medium and long term.

The objectives of the OPES are:


 * To observe long-term development of children and adolescents, and to enhance our understanding of the risk and protective factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic;
 * To implement innovative social interventions and/or technologies to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic;


 * To empower researchers to conduct world-class research in a multidisciplinary framework;
 * To carry on existing longitudinal studies and upgrade them with data to facilitate comparisons before, during, and after the pandemic;
 * Created in synergy with the Quebec Statistics Institute (Institut de la statistique du Québec, ISQ), whose mandate is to facilitate access to large administrative databases in Quebec;
 * Created in consultation with the Quebec Statistics Institute and the Quebec Ministries of Health, Education, Family, and Employment and Social Solidarity.

Thematic axes

 * Education
 * Mental health and well-being
 * Infection and immunity
 * Healthy lifestyle

Transversal axes

 * Economic development
 * Social innovation

Collected data
The Observatory investigates the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, psychosocial issues, health and economics through epidemiological studies linking data from administrative and research databases.

Current projects
The project will take place in two phases and will evaluate two cohorts of children assessed by the ISQ as part of the school readiness survey.

Confidentiality
The proposed Research Platform For Understanding Child Development, Health, and Education (Observatory for Children's Education and Health, OPES) is a secure infrastructure for epidemiological studies linking data from administrative and research databases. Data are de-identified such that individual participants cannot be identifiable.

Project phases
1st phase: Survey on psychosocial development (mental health) at the end of the school year 2020-2021;

2nd phase: Assessment of learning during the school year 2021-2022.

Adolescents cohort

 * Born in 2004-2005, assessed in kindergarten in 2011;
 * Data collection from 10,000 young people for psychosocial and school functioning.

Primary school children cohort

 * Born in 2010-2011, assessed in kindergarten in 2017;
 * Data collection from teachers who assess children’s psychosocial and academic functioning.

Cohort 2: Born in 2011
The Observatory will also conduct the following research projects:


 * Population-based and longitudinal studies of children’s learning and psychosocial development
 * Follow ups of participants assessed prior to march 2020
 * Seroprevalence studies
 * COVID-19 transmission in schools

Researchers

 * Sylvana Côté, Ph. D., Université de Montréal
 * Catherine Haeck, Ph. D., Université du Québec à Montréal
 * Simon Larose, Ph. D., Université Laval
 * Michel Boivin, Ph. D., Université Laval
 * Kate Zinszer, Ph. D., Université de Montréal
 * Benoit Mâsse, Ph. D., Université de Montréal
 * Richard Tremblay, Ph. D., Université de Montréal
 * Marie-Claude Geoffroy, Ph. D., McGill University
 * Lise Gauvin, Ph. D., Université de Montréal
 * Massimiliano Orri, Ph. D., McGill University
 * Anne Monique Nuyt, MD., Université de Montréal
 * Caroline Quach, MD, M. Sc., Université de Montréal
 * Sze Man Tse, MD., Université de Montréal
 * Nicholas Chadi, MD., MPH., Université de Montréal

Partners

 * CHU Sainte-Justine
 * Institut de la statistique du Québec
 * ESPUM
 * Fond de recherche - Société et Culture du Québec

Scientific publication
Researchers from the Observatory have already published numerous scientific articles and research reports on mental health, alcohol and cannabis use among young people , education, and economic development.

The observatory in the medias
In addition to its scientific notoriety, the researchers of the observatory regularly grant interviews in national and local media touching the French-speaking as well as English-speaking population such as Radio-Canada, La Presse , CTV news , World Today news , iHeart radio , msn news , TVA news  , La tribune , Cirano , AMEQ en ligne , Le journal de Montréal , le journal de Québec , UdeM news.