(NEW YORK) — The number of American children orphaned during the COVID-19 pandemic may be greater than previously estimated, and the worst hit has been far greater among Black and Hispanic Americans, a new study suggests.
More than half of the children who lost a primary caregiver during the pandemic belonged to those two racial groups, which make up about 40% of the US population, according to the study published Thursday by the medical journal Pediatrics.
“These findings really highlight those children who have been left most vulnerable by the pandemic, and where additional resources should be directed,” one of the study’s authors, Dr. Alexandra Blenkinsop of Imperial College London, said. in a statement.
During the nearly 19-month-long COVID-19 pandemic, more than 120,000 American children lost a parent or grandparent who was a primary provider of financial support and care, the study found. Another 22,000 children experienced the death of a secondary caregiver – for example, a grandparent who provides housing but not the child’s other basic needs.
In many cases, the surviving parents or other relatives were left to provide for these children. But the researchers used the term “orphanage” in their study as they tried to estimate how much the children’s lives were changed.
Federal statistics are not yet available on how many US children went foster care last year. Researchers estimate that COVID-19 has led to a 15% increase in orphaned children.
The new study’s numbers are based on statistical models that used fertility rates, death statistics and family composition data to make estimates.
A previous study by various researchers estimated that about 40,000 US children have lost a parent to COVID-19 by February 2021.
The results of the two studies are not inconsistent, said Ashton Verdery, an author of the previous study. Verdery and his colleagues focused on a shorter time period than the new study. Verdery’s group also focused only on the death of the parents, while the new paper also captured what happened to the caregiving grandparents.
“It is very important to understand the loss of grandparents,” said Verdery, a researcher at Penn State, in an email. “Many children live with grandparents,” a more common living arrangement among some racial groups.
About 32% of all children who lost a primary caregiver were Hispanic and 26% were Black. Hispanic and Black Americans make up much smaller percentages of the population than that. White children represent 35% of children who have lost primary caregivers, even though more than half of the population is white.
The differences were much more pronounced in some states. In California, 67% of children who lost primary caregivers were Hispanic. In Mississippi, 57% of children who lost primary caregivers were Black, the study found.
The new study based its calculation on excess deaths, or deaths above what would be considered typical. Most of those deaths were from the coronavirus, but the pandemic also took its toll more deaths from other causes.
Kate Kelly, a Georgia teenager, lost her 54-year-old father in January. William “Ed” Kelly had trouble breathing and an urgent care clinic suspected it was the cause of COVID-19, he said. But it turns out he had a blocked artery and died of a heart attack, leaving behind Kate, her two sisters and her mother.
In the first month after the death, friends and neighbors brought groceries, made donations and were very supportive. But then, it seemed that everyone passed on – except for Kate and her family.
“It was like no help,” said the Lilburn high school senior.
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