POLICY BRIEF NOVEMBER 2020 ADOLESCENCE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19: EVIDENCE FROM BANGLADESH Public Disclosure Authorized Sarah Baird1, Jennifer Seager2, Shwetlena Sabarwal3, Silvia Guglielmi4, and Maheen Sultan5 SUMMARY This note examines the effects of COVID-19 and subsequent economic and educational disruptions on adolescent well-being in Bangladesh. The analysis is based on data from 2,095 in-school adolescents aged 10–18 collected pre- COVID-19 (February–March 2020) through a field survey for an ongoing impact evaluation, and a follow-up virtual survey undertaken early in the pandemic (May–June 2020). Findings show large household-level economic impacts associated with increased food insecurity, anxiety, and mental health issues among adolescents. In addition, school Public Disclosure Authorized closures have decreased adolescents’ access to learning, increased time spent on household chores, and affected future job aspirations. The impacts are particularly large for girls and for adolescents from more vulnerable households. Policy makers need to consider policies that facilitate school return, targeting girls and the most vulnerable. They also need creative school-based programming to address the likely long-run physical and mental health effects of COVID-19 on young people. BACKGROUND COVID-19 has rapidly disrupted lives across the globe, likely Public Disclosure Authorized resulting in multidimensional effects on young people’s well- data collected before 2,095 in-school being in the short- and long-run. This is particularly the case for and after COVID-19 adolescents aged education. School closures related to COVID-19 will not only have 10–18 immediate direct effects on learning outcomes; they may also identified foster sustained impacts on education, labor market outcomes, food insecurity, anxiety, multidimensional and mental health issues and broader welfare (Rogers and Sabarwal 2020). In Bangladesh, impacts on families where higher secondary school dropout rates for girls are at least partially driven by social and cultural constraints—including early marriage, household responsibilities, lack of access to appropriate with serious adverse decreased access to learning, information about sexual and reproductive health, mental health effects on adolescents increased time spent on chores, issues, and school-based violence that includes sexual harassment due to school closures and affected job aspirations (Sosale, Asaduzzaman, and Ramachandran 2019)—the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to undermine many of the recent gains in girl’s education and to stunt further progress (see Box 1 for more on Public Disclosure Authorized COVID-19 in Bangladesh). necessitating innovative remote learning targeted policies methods, re-enrollment campaigns, While the government has aired video classes for grades 6 to 10 and interventions nutrition and counseling programs, on its Shangsad TV channel, uptake has been low (Asadullah 2020; training for teachers Biswas et al. 2020). Consequently, the education of school-goers 1George Washington University and GAGE, 2George Washington University and GAGE, 3The World Bank, 4GAGE, and 5BRAC Institute of Governance and Development and GAGE. has been left largely to the discretion of students and their parents. Preliminary global evidence suggests that adolescents who were enrolled in school when the pandemic hit may now BOX 1: COVID-19 IN BANGLADESH engage in paid work to supplement family income, take on larger After identifying the first cases of COVID-19 roles in the household, become pregnant, or face pressure to in the country on March 8, the government marry, all factors that will constrain school return when the implemented restrictions on mobility and schools reopen (Mendez Acosta and Evans 2020). The expected social gatherings to control the spread of the gendered impact of school closures echoes previous evidence virus. By March 17, when the country had eight from crises, which highlights increased burden of care-work for confirmed cases, the government declared a women, disruptions in access to sexual and reproductive health school closure that ultimately remained in place services, and increases in domestic violence for women and throughout the current academic year. By March girls (Smith 2019, Peterman et al. 2020, Wenham et al. 2020). 24, the government declared a 10-day nationwide In addition to school closures, the large negative economic lockdown to limit the spread of COVID-19. This shock experienced by most households (Genoni et al. 2020) lockdown was extended through May 30. may worsen the education impacts of COVID-19 in Bangladesh. COVID-19 Survey administration by Gender and These economic impacts threaten food security, which is Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) began in particularly important for adolescents and may be acutely felt early May 2020, when Bangladesh had identified in Bangladesh, where 25 percent of the population was food approximately 12,000 cases of COVID-19. During insecure and 36 percent of children under-five were stunted the survey administration period, which ended on even before COVID-19 (Alderman et al. 2006, Frankenberg et June 28, 2020, this number jumped to 137,787 al. 2017, Arndt et al. 2020, Bene 2020, USAID 2020). Moreover, cases.1 As of October 8, 2020, Bangladesh had the current crisis is likely to heighten risks for mental distress, reported 374,592 cases and 5,460 deaths from further affecting future trajectories in education and labor COVID-19. In response, the government has (Golberstein, Gonzales, and Meara 2019). Given that half of all repeatedly extended school closures through the mental illnesses begin by age 14 (WHO 2020, Kessler 2007), the end of October as case counts continue rising.2 COVID-19 pandemic is on the verge of creating a global mental health crisis among youth (Fegert et al. 2020). Notes: (1) Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, October 8, 2020. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. (2) Menon, S. Coronavirus: How the lockdown has changed schooling This brief explores the impact of COVID-19 on the well-being of in South Asia. BBC News, September 21, 2020. https://www.bbc. adolescents in Bangladesh who were attending grades seven com/news/world-south-asia-54009306 and eight in Chittagong and Sylhet at the time of the school closures and explores heterogeneity of impacts according to gender and the vulnerability status of the household. all adolescents surveyed during the first round, using phone DATA AND METHODOLOGY numbers obtained during the first round of data collection and were able to reach 2,156 of the original adolescents, This brief uses two rounds of data on over 2,000 adolescents a 97 percent recontact rate.3 The respondents were asked and their female primary caregivers collected as part of the questions related to the economic effects of the shock at Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) study implemented with support from the South Asia Gender 1 This research obtained ethnical clearance from the Innovations for Poverty Action Innovation Lab (SAR GIL).1 The first round of data collection Institutional Review Board (#15439) and the George Washington University Office of Human Research – Institutional Review Board (#071721). took place during February and March of 2020 through face- 2 Monthly Pay Order (MPO) schools are private schools that receive funding for payroll to-face interviews with a random sample of adolescents from the government of Bangladesh and follow the official government curriculum. The data collected was planned to survey a random sample of 4,932 adolescents across a attending grades seven and eight in public and semi- representative sample of 251 schools (160 MPO schools and 91 government schools). The private (Monthly Pay Order, or MPO) schools in Chittagong schools were randomly selected from a full list of both school types operating in each division provided by the Bangladesh Ministry of Education. Data collection was interrupted on March 2 and Sylhet divisions. The first round was a baseline for an 18, 2020, when schools were closed as part of a broader government shutdown, when data had been collected from 45 percent of the intended sample. See Seager et al. (2020) for ongoing impact evaluation, with programming supported detail on the sample and survey instruments. by the World Bank. The second round of data collection was 3 Phone penetration is high among the sample; 98.9 percent of adolescents in the sample live in households with at least one cell phone. conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviewing 4 For the full survey instrument: https://www.gage.odi.org/publication/covid-19-phone- in May and June 2020. Enumerators attempted to recontact survey-round-1/ 2 | POLICY BRIEF the household level, as well as on various dimensions of adolescent well-being.4 BOX 2: OUTCOME MEASURES Specifically, this brief uses data for 2,095 adolescents and their primary female caregivers who responded to all items Household Income and Food Security used to generate a measure of household vulnerability that • Household lost at least some income due to COVID we use to understand the impact of COVID-19 on more • Household was able to buy essential food items vulnerable households.5 It also draws on in-depth qualitative over the past 7 days data gathered from 39 adolescents, selected from the • Household cut back quantities served per meal to quantitative sample, during July and September 2020. At adolescents in the household during last 4 weeks the time of the baseline