Stakeholders and experts’ opinion for developing a web-application for children and adolescents during pandemics

Natural disasters, including pandemics, can have traumatic consequences on children and adolescents’ development (Raccanello et al., 2021). It is paramount to create instruments promoting their resilience (Masten, 2021), to foster their knowledge on health behaviors and emotional preparedness. Following current standards (Giannakakos et al., 2020), we developed the first two levels of the application PandHEMOT focused on the nature of pandemics and health behaviors, on the basis of the opinion of experts and stakeholders. We involved 22 experts and/or stakeholders (primary/secondary school teachers, two experts from a civil protection agency, two psychologists, two health sociologists, two pediatricians, a doctor of public health, and a security officer) using semi-structured interviews on the main characteristics of pandemics and safety measures. We used content analysis. Concerning the nature of pandemics, we identified macrocategories related to definition of epidemics, pandemics, virus, coronavirus, vaccination, and COVID-19 symptoms. As regards health behaviors, we distinguished safety measures related to one’s own body, to interactions with other people, and to interactions with objects. Then, a pool of experts in health sociology and developmental psychology identified the content of 48 dichotomous items, 12 correct and 12 incorrect for each level of the application. Our study suffers from limitations (e.g., social desirability). However, this phase has a key role for identifying part of the contents of PandHEMOT to be used with children and adolescents. Future research will test the usability and efficacy of the application for increasing their pandemic-related knowledge and resilience.