Operating Grant : Understanding and mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, youth and families in Canada

The specific objective of this funding opportunity is to:

• Improve our understanding of, response to, and recovery from co-occurring stressful and traumatic events that stem from the current COVID-19 pandemic, and/or the impacts of restrictions related to associated public health mitigation measures, with respect to children, youth and families in Canada, by addressing one (1) or more of the following four (4) items through research that takes an integrated knowledge mobilization approach to:
  1. Enhance understanding of the nature and breadth of the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on children, youth and families, including factors that are protective or exacerbate these impacts;
  2. Accelerate the availability and use of high-quality and real-time evidence regarding the identification and mobilization of practices that have supported the adaptation of existing programs and the development of new programs that support the health and well-being of children, youth and families in Canada; and,
  3. Generate evidence related to diverse population(s), including for instance: equity considerations, health and well-being status (e.g., historically excluded or underserved populations, individuals with complex health needs and/or a disability), sex and gender, and/or racialized or First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Urban Indigenous populations.
  4. Identify populations at the highest and high risk for negative outcomes, factors that are associated with this increased greater risk, as well as any factors that have been found to be protective and/or enhance resilience.

In addition, researchers are encouraged to:

• Leverage existing cohorts/samples/health administrative, educational, surveillance and other data sets, by using existing data and/or collecting additional measures as necessary.
• Consider the variety of data sources (including single or multi-jurisdictional) that may be accessed to inform study designs, and how these data sources can be enhanced and/or combined in their analyses.
• Consider how to disentangle the contributions of different sources of stress, including stressful and traumatic events, changes in family or community economic and/or social impacts (including any food or housing insecurity/instability, violence in the home), and disruptions resulting from restrictions in service and care delivery.

Applications must clearly communicate how Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and, where applicable, Indigenous Rights will be incorporated into the research proposed. Refer to the Best practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research, the Tri-Agency EDI Action Plan and the Tri-Agency Strengthening Indigenous Research Capacity Strategic Plan for additional guidance. This includes incorporation of biological variables (e.g. sex, age, etc.) and/or sociocultural identity factors (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, language, etc.) into the research proposed, where applicable.