When Home Becomes School: Factors Predicting Engagement in Distance Learning

• In Event: Household Functioning and Child Wellbeing in the Midst of COVID-19: Evidence from Across the United States

Abstract

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced school closures in March 2020, children’s learning moved home and online. Yet students’ participation in distance learning is no small feat for many families, particularly those with low incomes (Dooley, Bandelay, & Tschudy, 2020). Identifying factors that hinder or promote students’ participation in remote learning activities is a necessary first step in supporting more equitable educational opportunities. The current study addresses this pressing question by drawing on an existing study of diverse low-income students in Tulsa, OK. We capitalize on comprehensive, multi-informant data collected before and during COVID-19 to examine participation in distance learning during COVID while controlling for pre-existing differences that might otherwise be confounded with both COVID-related stressors and obstacles to distance learning participation.

Method
Data were collected as part of an ongoing, longitudinal study of school experiences and early development. Participants (n = 1,304 low-income children) were initially recruited at age 3 or 4 (in 2016-2017) and were in first grade during the spring of 2020. The current study draws on the annual parent survey from winter/spring 2020 (pre-COVID), when parents reported on psychosocial factors (maternal depression, household chaos); the annual assessment of children’s academic and self-regulatory skills (Fall 2019); and surveys of parents and teachers conducted from May-early July 2020 to capture distance learning experiences. At that time, parents reported on structural factors that might impede distance learning (e.g., internet and device access, quiet place for child to work). Parents also reported children’s participation in distance learning (1 = Participated as much as or more than teacher requested), and teachers reported on children’s work completion (1 = Completed as much as or more than the amount of work teacher requested). The analytic sample (n = 342) is suitably representative of first-graders in the school district. Separate logit regression models were used to predict children’s participation and work completion, first from a block of child and family psychosocial factors (Model 1) and then with the addition of structural family factors (Model 2).

Initial Findings
In Model 1, greater household chaos, but not maternal depression, was associated with lower odds of children’s participation in distance learning (Table 2). In Model 2, household chaos remained significant after adding the block of structural variables -- lack of access to internet, technology device, and a quiet place for schoolwork, all of which were linked to lower odds of child participation.
Greater maternal depression unexpectedly increased the odds of children’s work completion (Model 1). Unlike models predicting child participation, neither household chaos nor structural factors was associated with children’s work completion (Models 1 and 2). Children’s pre-COVID academic and self-regulatory skills did not predict participation or work completion.

As a next step, we plan to access Canvas metrics from the partnering district to provide additional insight to children’s engagement. Implications for researchers and educators will be discussed.

Authors

• Sherri L Castle, University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author

• Anne Martin, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anne Partika, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Diane M. Horm, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna D. Johnson, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author