Navigating Through a new Normal: Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Maya Children’s Development

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Solicited Content: Indigenous Children and Families

Abstract

Much research has looked at children’s autonomy and how they are raised across cultures, particularly the cultural assumptions about children’s roles in the family and community. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has not allowed much research on the challenges children now face and the way they have adapted at home.
Our study explores how Maya families cope with the changes of COVID-19, particularly exploring the challenges imposed by this new approach to everyday activities and virtual schooling. The interview protocol was approved by our institution’s IRB board. The interviews were conducted in Spanish by the third author via WhatsApp and verbal informed consent was obtained from all participants. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed by native Spanish speaking research assistants.
Preliminary results suggest that Maya mothers are facing unprecedented challenges including health concerns and lack of economic barriers and count with almost no support and resources. Maya mothers did not report any significant changes on their children’s social interactions and had no concerns about their children’s social and emotional development. On the other hand, they report significant concerns arising from widespread unemployment (and lack of food), availability/cost of health care, and extremely limited economic and technological resources for supporting their children’s instruction (and limited understanding of the curriculum).
While Maya mothers report helping their children with remote schooling, Maya children continue to manage many of their school activities, household work play activities, and share responsibilities. Although they need help reading or understanding instructions from teachers– they are still organizing their work, starting their school activities on their own, and putting their school supplies away when completed.
Maya children continue to participate in family work and take initiative to help and help their younger siblings as needed. This is not a cause of stress for mothers having their children at home and having to do work. Children notice there is work and take the initiative to help.
For example, a participant reported how her six-year-old son “wakes up at 6am and helps feed the pigs and chickens, gives them food and water, helps at home, and does it all on his own.” Sometimes he wakes up and starts to work before his mom gets up.
New and unexpected learning opportunities were created during this unexpected time. Maya children that are now spending more time at home, are more likely to learn new household activities, like cooking, making tortillas (age 12 and 14), learning to work in the milpa, planting, and harvesting produce. Maya families look for new activities and skills to increase their likelihood to earn more money, particularly for adolescents as they are unable to stay in school with the added costs of virtual learning.
Overall, these findings highlight the new challenges that families are facing while no support and resources have been offered. We hope our findings will give insight to teaching institutions on the different challenges families are facing and adapt their courses.

Authors

• Yuliana Fernandez, California State University - Fullerton
  Presenting Author

• dania salgado
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lucia Alcalá, California State University - Fullerton
  Non-Presenting Author

• Suzanne Gaskins, Northeastern Illinois University
  Non-Presenting Author