Dear Colleagues,

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic. The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak has been one of the most challenging public health crises in the world. At present, many countries are still struggling to manage their crises related to COVID-19. Emerging infectious disease outbreaks such as the current coronavirus pandemic often have a tremendous impact on the mental well-being of the population due to the fear of the disease itself as well as uncertainty. Many governments had to implement drastic measures such as lockdowns, social distancing and quarantine in order to prevent the collapse of health systems caused by the rapid spread of the disease. These mandated restrictive measures abruptly and dramatically affected people’s daily routines, work, school, travel, and leisure activities.

Children and youths could be especially vulnerable as we enter the third year of the pandemic, due to the disruption of routines, education, and recreation, as well as the concern for possible loss of family income or death of family members. According to the latest report from UNICEF, at least 1 in 7 children globally have been directly affected by lockdowns, whereas more than 1.6 billion children have suffered some loss of education. It has not only had tremendous impacts on the mental health and well-being of the children, adolescents and youths, but also on their caregivers and families. The current Special Issue encourages authors around the world to contribute original articles, reviews and meta-analyses dealing with the short-, mid- and long-term effects of COVID-19 on the mental health and well-being of children and youths. We are especially interested in what have we learned so far, and in the implications of the pandemic for the mental health and well-being of children and youths. A particular focus should be placed on trying to answer (or at least discuss) the potential risk and resilience factors and long-term consequences of COVID-19 in youth and the implications (preventive or intervention measures) for the future.

Prof. Dr. Meichun Mohler-Kuo
Guest Editor

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• risk factors
• resilience factors
• COVID-19
• mental illness
• mental health
• prevention
• interventions
• youths
• children
• adolescents