Children, Media, and Covid-19. An interanational study in 42 countries

The aim of this international study was to find out how children around the world dealt with the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and what role media played in this. Coordinated by the Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television (IZI) of the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation an online survey was conducted in 42 countries. The data was gathered during the first lock-down between 31 March and 26 April 2020. Worldwide, 4.322 children (9-13 years) took part, including 149 from Austria. Partner for Austria was a team from the WEL-Digtial research group at the research Center Hagenberg, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria. The study provides information on, how children's lives changed in the first months of the crisis, which challenges they faced in that time, which coping strategies the children applied, which functions different media fulfilled in this context, how children regulated their media use, were they got information about Covid-19 from, and how well they were informed about the virus.