Child Development invites manuscripts for a Special Section on Children’s Developmental Trajectories in the Long Shadow of COVID-19. The Special Section Co-Editors are Anna D. Johnson, Gabriela Livas-Stein, and Seth Pollak.
Letter of Intent submissions are due Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
About the Special Section
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically disrupted the two contexts in which young children spend nearly all of their time: home and school (Gunnar, 2021; Masten, 2021). A flurry of research released in the early years of the pandemic – 2020-2022 – relied on short-term data, precluding opportunities to assess how events associated with the pandemic might affect children’s longer-term developmental trajectories (Browne et al., 2021; Rao & Fisher, 2021). Moreover, much of the extant literature – both scientific and in the popular press – has focused on a relatively narrow narrative of loss and challenges without consideration of heterogeneity in contexts and experiences, resulting in less attention to populations typically understudied in developmental science.
Finally, many reports in the literature are cross-sectional, obviously limiting conclusions about pre-to-post-COVID patterns of development. Thus, there is a critical need for balanced and rigorous science that examines children's developmental trajectories in the long shadow of COVID-19, with a special focus on heterogeneity among children’s developmental contexts, social experiences, and outcomes.
To that end, we seek papers that rely on longitudinal, repeated measures data to describe children’s development over time, from pre-pandemic to the extended period long after acute lockdowns and school closures ended. We also welcome submissions that document predictors of children’s developmental trajectories across this extended period, and that identify risk and protective factors as well as critical mechanisms that might shape those pathways. We encourage studies that draw on data on a broad range of developmental, well-being, and health outcomes and that bring important attention to populations typically understudied in the developmental science literature. Thus, we are especially interested in data that are limited to or include sizable samples of diverse children and youth (e.g., children from underrepresented groups; children from global communities; children from economically disadvantaged communities) and that use strengths-based and/or adaptive approaches. Papers must be empirical (i.e., quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods) literature reviews or concept papers will not be considered. However, we welcome brief reports as well as multi-data papers and typical-length research articles.
Letters of intent are required; authors will then be invited to submit full-length manuscripts. All submitted papers will undergo an initial screening by the editors, and papers that appear appropriate for this special section will be sent out for peer review following the journal’s regular peer review process.
Timeline and Detailed Submission Requirements
May 7, 2025: Authors who plan to submit a manuscript for the special section must submit a letter of intent (LOI) through the SRCD submission site by May 7, 2025. The letter should include:
- Tentative title
- Brief description (500 words or less) of the proposed submission describing the questions, data source, and method
- Names and affiliations of all anticipated authors
- Contact information of the corresponding author
The special section editors will review letters of intent for fit with the section and work to provide the broadest representation of high-quality papers.
Contact scholar@srcd.org for assistance with the submission portal.
June 15, 2025: Following a review of the LOIs, potential contributors will be contacted by June 15, 2025 and asked to submit a full manuscript. Submissions should not exceed 40 pages in length, inclusive of everything (body text, references, tables/figures, etc.). Extensive use of web supplements is also strongly encouraged. Please review the Child Development Submission Guidelines for additional requirements.
August 30, 2025: Invited manuscripts should be submitted through Child Development’s submission portal by or before August 30, 2025. Note: This is a different submission portal than was used for the LOI. All manuscripts will undergo Child Development’s rigorous peer review process.
Please review the guidelines in the Manuscript Submission section on the journal’s homepage at information about how to prepare an article. All submissions must comply with APA policies, including certification of compliance with APA ethical principles for research, the prohibition of multiple submissions and duplicate publication, authors’ obligation to retain raw data, and other requirements for submission as noted on the submission site. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with APA publication guidelines as described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) and submitted through the journal’s submission portal. When you submit through the online submission portal, you will be asked to indicate an article type: please be sure to select this special section when you submit.
Please include ‘Covid-19’ at the start of your paper title within the editorial system for processing purposes. (Note: The addition will not be included in publication.)
Please note in your cover letter to the Editor that it is in response to the “Children’s Developmental Trajectories in the Long Shadow of COVID-19” call for papers. Inquiries regarding topics or scope for the special section can be sent to Anna Johnson at Anna.Johnson@georgetown.edu.
October 30, 2025: The first round of decisions will be sent back to authors by or before October 30, 2025.
December 15, 2025: Revision due. Accepted manuscripts will be published online following receipt of the required author paperwork and author proof review.
March/April 2026: Expected issue publication. Individual articles will be published to Early View as they are accepted.
REMINDER: Do not submit LOIs by email to the Co-Editors or Publications Office, or through the Child Development journal submission portal. LOIs must be submitted through the SRCD application site detailed above to be considered.
Questions?
If you have questions or concerns about the substance of submissions, please direct them to: Anna Johnson, Anna.Johnson@georgetown.edu.
If you have questions or concerns about the manuscript submission process, please contact SRCD’s Publications Manager at cdev@srcd.org or mlutchkus@srcd.org.
If you have questions, concerns, or technical difficulties with the LOI application portal, please contact scholar@srcd.org.