Browsing by Author "Abufhele, Alejandra"

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    Developmental Losses in Young Children from Pre-Primary Program Closures During the COVID-19 Pandemic
    (2022) Abufhele, Alejandra; Bravo, David; López-Bóo, Florencia; Soto Ramírez, Pamela Eliana
    The learning and developmental losses from pre-primary program closures due to COVID-19 may be unprecedented. These disruptions early in life can be long-lasting. Although there is evidence about the effects of school closures on older children, there is currently no evidence on such losses for children in their early years. This paper is among the first to quantify the actual impact of pandemic-related closures on child development, in this case for a sample of young children in Chile, where school and childcare closures lasted for about a year.We use a unique dataset collected face-to-face in December 2020, which includes child development indicators for general development, language development, social-emotional development, and executive function. We find adverse impacts on children in 2020 compared to children interviewed in 2017 in most development areas. In particular, nine months after the start of the pandemic, we find a loss in language development of 0.25 SDs
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    The Effect of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Maternal Mental Health and Parenting Practices Moderated by Urban Green Space
    (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2022) Narea, Marigen; Asahi, Kenzo; Abufhele, Alejandra; Telias, Amanda; Gildemeister, Damian; Alarcon, Samanta
    Stress generates difficulties in parenting, which affects child development. We aimed to understand the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on maternal mental health and parenting practices. We also explored to what extent green space is a protective factor in the aforementioned relationship. We explored heterogeneous lockdown effects using longitudinal georeferenced data for 985 families (mothers and 24- to 30-month-olds) and exploiting localized lockdowns in Chile. Controlling for observed and unobserved fixed characteristics, on average, we did not find an association between lockdown duration and maternal mental health or parenting practices. However, the previous nonsignificant association is heterogeneous across access to green space. Although lockdown duration increased dysfunctional interactions with children for mothers with little access to green space, we did not see the previous effect on mothers who live close to green space. Mothers who do not comply with the lockdown mandate are the ones who drive this heterogeneous effect.