Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

When COVID-19 hit, researchers at the University of Oregon wanted to know how the pandemic was affecting families, so they formed RAPID-EC.

The initiative – its full name is Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development (RAPID) – Early Childhood – is an ongoing survey of “early childhood family well-being” that’s “designed to gather essential information in a continuous manner regarding the needs, health promoting behaviors, and well-being of children and their families during the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States.”

Weekly surveys draw on a “nationally representative sample of parents.”

The survey results aren’t surprising. The pandemic is taking a huge toll on families. But RAPID-EC explains how this is happening, offering insights to policymakers as they figure out how to reopen and rebuild society.

RAPID-EC is sharing its findings in a series of articles posted on Medium.

A RAPID-EC article posted last month points to economic differences, noting:

“child and adult mental health difficulties such as anxiety and stress, which were already higher among lower income households than others, have been steadily increasing since the pandemic began.

“In contrast, these problems in middle- and upper-income households have leveled off or even started to diminish after an initial bump.

“As a result, the gap in well-being between lower-income households and others is far larger than it was before the pandemic. Notably, we’ve found that these difficulties are highly correlated with lack of food and loss of school meals.”

In an article posted this week, RAPID-EC reports that wealthier families are having an easier time returning to their pre-pandemic child care arrangements than low-income families.

“These differences suggest that without policy action, several highly concerning trends are likely to emerge in the near future:

1. 1. A sizable proportion of the lower-wage earning sector of the workforce may be unable to return to work

1. 2. A large number of childcare providers who serve lower-income households will permanently close their doors.

“When it comes to childcare, households with young children are not all in the same boat. In order to build back our economy, we need to ensure that everyone has the supports they need, including childcare, to be able to return to work.”

To learn more, check out RAPID-EC’s website and articles. And share these findings with your social and professional networks.

Having research on what families are facing will make it easier to ask policymakers to help families get what they need.