Children’s Development During Social Transition

Children's development is determined by genetic but also by social factors, which shape and determine their everyday life. However, the environmental factors in the contemporary world are growing less stable and less predictable than genetic factors, especially in the conditions of rapid social changes such as socio-political, economic, and public health-related events that have been profoundly affecting the lifestyles of children in the last three decades. In this period, we witnessed the arrival of capitalist consumerism in ex-socialist European countries, rapid worldwide urbanization of previously rural societies, the global financial crisis of 2007-08, and the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, which all triggered profound and sudden transformations of society. Children had to adapt to each new situation, and newly adapted social practices most often displaced otherwise habitual physical activity with sedentariness, causing the myriad of increased risks to normal somatic and motor development of children.

This Research Topic aims to improve the understanding of the effect of environmental factors during social transitions, and thus to help identify possible solutions and strategies that provide a healthy transition from childhood to adulthood. These strategies include the reduction of obesity, improvement of morphological characteristics and physical fitness, and many other aspects of children's somatic and motor development. The Topic offers an opportunity to publish high quality research related to the monitoring and promotion of physical changes in pediatric populations and their development. We are mainly interested in interventions in the home, school, and community-based settings from the countries where major socio-economic changes have taken place in past 30 years, as well as all other countries affected by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. We also welcome papers investigating the short‐ and long‐term effects of environmental factors on physical changes in pediatric populations and their development. Correlational and survey studies examining the above-mentioned issues are welcome. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed by experts in the field.

We welcome Original Research, Review Articles, Case Studies, Clinical Trials, Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses regarding, but not limited to, topics such as:
• Changes to children's physical fitness during social transition;
• Changes to physical activity patterns during social transition;
• School- or home-based physical activity interventions during social transition;
• Trends in childhood obesity during social transition;
• Changes in children's body composition during social transition;
• Short- and long-term changes in children's lifestyle during times of economic crises, socio-political changes, or epidemics.