Pandemic Voices of Families: A Structural Topic Modeling Analysis of the RAPID-EC Nationally Representative Survey

• In Event: Family functioning and child mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for risk, resilience, and recovery

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold across the U.S., households with young children are experiencing very challenging circumstances. RAPID-EC (Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development-Early Childhood) is an ongoing survey of families with children age 5 and under. The primary goal is to provide actionable data to key stakeholders (policy makers, practitioners, child advocates, researchers) to (a) inform immediate and long-term policy decisions and (b) facilitate design of support programs for families. RAPID-EC includes questions about family supports and utilization of resources, caregiver mental health and well-being, and child development including parents’ concerns about their child(ren)’s development.
RAPID-EC launched April 6, 2020 and fielded a weekly nationally representative survey (in terms of race/ethnicity, geography, and income) of over 1000 households through early August. From August through December 2020, we continue to field every other week. We analyze data and post findings to disseminate to key policy leaders, advocacy groups, organizations supporting caregivers and families, and the general public. Our partners are also using RAPID-EC data in additional analyses and in policy briefs regarding children and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this presentation we present results from analyses of open-ended questions that were included in the survey. Specifically, we used structural topic modeling (STM; Roberts et al., 2014) to examine over 16000 responses to five questions over the course of the survey between April and September 2020:
• Q1: What are the biggest challenges and concerns for you and your family right now?
• Q2: What is helping you and your family the most right now?
• Q3: What is on your mind the most when you think about your community re-opening?
• Q4: What concerns do you have about your place of employment and/or your child’s child care setting re-opening?
• Q5: Is there anything else you would like to tell us about you and your family’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic?

STM allows for the extraction of thematic content from open-ended text responses. As with other quantitative data reduction techniques, it allows for identification of underlying structure in complex datasets. As shown in Figure 1, STM allowed us to specify the central challenges facing families over the course of the survey. In addition, it facilitated identification of individual responses that are the best exemplars of each theme.

Authors

• Sara Weston, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

• Philip Andrew Fisher, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author