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Zoom-ing Through Development: Using Video Chat to Support Family Connections During COVID-19

Fri, April 9, 10:00 to 11:30am EDT (10:00 to 11:30am EDT), Virtual

Abstract

COVID-19 lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders initially prevented many grandparents from seeing their grandchildren in person. Strong family ties are critical for healthy child development (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000), but with 80% of COVID-19 deaths occurring in adults aged 65 and older (CDC, 2020), the United States Centers for Disease Control has recommended that older adults limit in-person interactions. Even as official lockdowns have eased, many families worry about exposing vulnerable grandparents by visiting them (Parker-Pope, 2020). Yet indefinite social isolation is not sustainable: it increases the risk of depression and anxiety in adult family members (Santini et al., 2020), and interferes with the positive benefits of the grandparenting relationship for children (Dunifon, 2013).

How can families with infants and young children overcome these barriers? For children under 7 years, traditional telephone calls can be a challenge (Ballagas et al., 2009), but video chat offers a promising alternative for young children and grandparents developing bonds at a distance (Ames et al., 2010; McClure et al., 2015). Video chat allows grandparents and grandchildren to see and share with each other in real time (McClure et al., 2017) without the need for masks and while maintaining the distance recommended for in-person visits during the pandemic (CDC, 2020). This research project examines the use of video chat for this purpose, particularly with children age 5 and under. Does video chat support families in creating and maintaining child-grandparent connections?

We collected survey data during the COVID-19 pandemic (June-August 2020) to examine factors that predicted how parents (n = 890) and grandparents (n = 829) of children (ages 0-5 years) rated their enjoyment of video chats between the child and grandparent as well as the closeness of the child-grandparent relationship. Grandparents (M = 61.5 years old, range 30-84 years) were asked to respond about their youngest grandchild (M = 33.2 months old, range 1-72 months), and parents (M = 34.5 years old, range = 20-56 years) were asked to respond about their youngest child (M = 31.3 months old, range 0-72 months).

Hierarchical regression (see Table 1) was used to analyze the survey data. Preliminary results show that the frequency of video chat predicted both enjoyment and closeness as rated by both parents and grandparents. This was significant even after controlling for the child’s age and whether the child and grandparent had met in person, suggesting that video chats may help to build connections as well as to maintain them. In addition, grandparents’ perception that the child recognizes them over video chat was related to their feelings of closeness with the child. These results are consistent with the Intergenerational Solidarity Model (Silverstein et al., 1998), as well as with prior research showing the importance of sensitive, contingent, developmentally appropriate scaffolding and co-viewing of video chat (McClure et al, 2017; Myers et al, 2018; Strouse et al, 2018). These findings will serve as a foundation for the development of effective interventions to maintain relational connections with grandparents for very young children during periods of separation.

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