General knowledge and perception of portuguese children about COVID-19

Abstract

[EN] The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has not only posed a number of challenges to health systems around the world, but its effects have been devastating on economic, social and political levels. Along with the epidemiological danger of COVID-19, the expansion of disinformation about the pandemic has been a major concern of the World Health Organization (WHO 2019), including among children. Therefore, it is important to ask: what is the knowledge and perception of Portuguese children about COVID-19? Our study’s main objective is to answer this question by assessing how they perceived the epidemiological phenomenon. In order to fulfill our goal, we applied a single questionnaire to a sample of 960 children between three and 11 years old, collected between March 20 and April 21, 2020. The online survey with open-ended questions was disseminated by email through Primary and Preschools from all regions of Portugal, and through Facebook. Subsequently, we carried out a qualitative analysis of the results for which we rely on the IRAMUTEQ software. The study concluded that Portuguese children were, in general, able to identify and define the disease, assess its risk of contagion and the severity it represents for humanity; and that the majority are afraid of the consequences of COVID-19.