Media-based parenting materials, social-emotional learning, and coping with COVID-19: Impact on attitudes and behavior

• In Event: Digital Media Use for Learning During COVID-19

Abstract

Two studies, conducted approximately one year apart, examined the impact of Sesame Street parenting materials (webinars and/or articles for parents, videos and digital games for children, hands-on offline activities for joint use) on parents’ confidence and use of targeted parenting strategies. Study 1 focused on parents’ promotion of broad-based social-emotional learning (SEL) with preschool children, while Study 2 (conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic) concerned helping preschoolers through the challenges of COVID-19 and social isolation. Each study (N = 96 and N = 56) ran over the course of six weeks and employed a pretest-posttest design. Parents completed self-report measures that included behavioral indicators (e.g., “In the past 7 days, how often did you encourage your child to take a deep breath to calm down?”) and ratings of their confidence in supporting aspects of either children’s SEL (e.g., handling difficult emotions) or children’s wellbeing during COVID-19 (e.g., feeling comfortable and happy during the pandemic and social isolation). In between, weekly logs documented families’ use of the materials.

Both studies revealed significant pretest-posttest gains in behavioral and attitudinal variables. Study 1 found significant gains in parents’ confidence about helping children learn to manage emotions (p < .001) and in all eight of the parenting strategies that were measured (e.g., naming and talking about feelings, taking a deep breath, working together to solve problems; p < .01 or p < .001). Similarly, Study 2 also found significant gains in confidence, both in helping children manage emotions (p = .05) and more specifically in supporting children’s physical safety and emotional wellbeing during COVID-19 (p < .005), as well as six of the eight parenting strategies that were measured (e.g., taking a deep breath to calm down, talking or playing with friends by phone or video chat, wearing a facemask or scarf outdoors; p < .05 or more significant). However, two strategies -- helping with difficult feelings about getting sick or dying, and making a card or picture for someone sick -- did not show significant change, probably because the vast majority of children did not know anyone who’d gotten sick (82%) or died (96%) during the pandemic.

Together, the results of these two studies demonstrate the potential for media-based materials to support parents, both in nurturing their children’s social and emotional development, and in helping children cope with the challenges of health emergencies such as COVID-19. At the same time, the data also suggest that these effects may be moderated by the immediacy of families’ needs; strategies that were immediately relevant in Study 2 (e.g., helping children calm down when upset, or wash hands after going outside) showed significant increases, but less immediately relevant strategies (regarding someone who was sick or died) did not. Implications for the design of effective interventions will be discussed.

Authors

• Shalom M Fisch, MediaKidz
  Presenting Author

• David Cohen, Sesame Workshop
  Non-Presenting Author