According to a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics of the American Medical Association on Monday, it is estimated that between 37,300 and 43,000 U.S. children experienced the loss of at least one parent due to COVID-19 last year.
A closer look at the data found that the burden, which the study’s authors acknowledge will likely “get heavier” amid the ongoing pandemic, has fallen disproportionately on black children.
Black children account for only 14% of children under the age of 18 in the United States, but the study estimated that they account for 20% of children who have lost a father due to coronavirus.
The authors said they were able to “track parental grief as the pandemic evolves” by estimating the expected number of children affected by each death from COVID-19.
“We used kinship networks of estimated black and white individuals in the United States using demographic microsimulation to calculate the grief multiplier, and then we used the multiplier to estimate the extent of parental grief in various mortality scenarios,” they wrote.
The authors said the estimates are based on demographic modeling and do not “include the grief of unrelated primary caregivers.” They added that the study is also based on “publicly unidentified data” and is not considered “research on human subjects”.
Their research model, they wrote, “suggests that each defect for COVID-19 leaves 0.078 children from 0 to 17 years old giving birth in disuse,” which they noted represents a 17.5% increase in 20.2% “of parental mourning absent from COVID-19.
The authors described as “surprising” the estimated number of children who have lost a parent due to the coronavirus, saying that “radical national reforms are needed to address the health, educational and economic impact affecting children.”
“The sudden death of parents, such as that caused by COVID-19, can be especially traumatic for children and leave families ill-prepared to navigate the consequences,” they wrote.
“In addition, COVID-19 losses occur at a time of social isolation, institutional tension, and economic hardship, which can leave children in grief without the supports they need,” they added.
The United States has seen nearly 31 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 555,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.