Examining violence and its effects on children's mental and physical health during the corona pandemic: A Systematic Review

The emergence of COVID-19 as a global epidemic has disrupted the daily lives of children, adolescents and families around the world, and its effects are immediate and possibly long-lasting. The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic survey to investigate violence and its effects on children's mental and physical health during the corona pandemic.

A literature search was conducted based on systematic review guidelines and PRISMA guidelines. The present study includes all the studies that were published in English in national and international journals on violence against children and adolescents during the COVID-19 epidemic from December 2019 to 03/24/2021.
 Articles were extracted from five scientific databases: PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. The title and summary of the article were reviewed according to the eligibility criteria.

A total of 1,348 articles were initially retrieved from selected databases after consultation. After reviewing the titles and abstracts of articles, 56 articles were initially submitted according to predetermined eligibility criteria. After a more detailed analysis, only 12 scientific articles remain in our selection.

The results of the study show that the impact of the widespread coronavirus disease on the mental health of children and adolescents is inevitable. There may be a relationship between economic factors, school closure, and violence among children and adolescents. Therefore, government planning and policies should focus on cohesive educational programs, monitoring the mental health status of children and adolescents, planning to improve mental health outcomes, ensuring fair access to distance learning materials, and implementing centralized economic programs.