According to a study published in the American Medical Association’s JAMA Pediatrics newspaper on Monday, about 37,300 to 43,000 American children suffered the loss of at least one parent due to COVID-19 last year.
A closer look at the data revealed that the burden, which the study authors acknowledge is likely to “get heavier” in the midst of the ongoing pandemic, fell disproportionately on black children.
Black children represent only 14% of children under 18 in the United States, but the study estimated that they represent 20% of children who have lost a parent due to the coronavirus.
The authors said they were able to “track parental grief as the pandemic progresses”, estimating the expected number of affected children for each COVID-19 death.
“We use kinship networks of white and black individuals in the United States estimated through demographic micro-simulation to calculate the grief multiplier, and then we use the multiplier to estimate the scope of parental grief in various mortality scenarios,” they wrote.
The authors said the estimates are based on demographic models and do not “include mourning for primary non-parental caregivers”. They added that the study is also based on “unidentified and publicly available data” and is not “considered research with humans”.
Their research model, they wrote, “suggests that each COVID-19 death leaves 0.078 children aged 0 to 17 mourning their parents,” which they observed represented a 17.5 to 20.2 percent increase in mourning. of parents in the absence of COVID-19.
The authors rated the estimated number of children who lost a parent to the coronavirus as “impressive”, saying “comprehensive national reforms are needed to address the health, education and economic side effects that affect children”
“The sudden death of parents, such as that due to COVID-19, can be particularly traumatic for children and leave families ill-prepared to face its consequences,” they wrote.
“In addition, the losses of COVID-19 are occurring at a time of social isolation, institutional tension and economic difficulties, potentially leaving bereaved children without the support they need,” they added.
The United States has seen nearly 31 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 555,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.