"We are being intentionally kind to each other": Parent reflections on COVID-19

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

COVID-19 has abruptly and chronically altered the lives of families. Understanding how parenting practices have adapted to this enduring stressor will allow us to better support families through this (and future) disruptions. Given the unprecedented nature of this stressor, a qualitative approach was used to examine parents' experiences in their own words to gain a more detailed and nuanced understanding of how their parenting has changed during COVID. Specifically, we will identify themes related to the following aspects of parenting: (1) changes in parenting style broadly, (2) how financial strains caused by COVID have impacted parenting, (3) how COVID has impacted division of parenting labor in the household, and (4) how parents have socialized their children to cope with the stress of COVID (generally, and specifically in regard to academic and peer stress resulting from COVID).

A community sample of parents (N=204, M age=39.2, 72.1% female, 74.4% White) of 8-12-year-old children (M child age=10.1, 51.2% female, 69.1% White) living in the US were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk in August 2020. Parents responded in writing to a series of open-ended questions about multiple aspects of their experiences parenting through COVID-19 (see Table 1 for the questions asked, as well as the coding plans). Data collection is complete. Data coding is ongoing by a team of supervised undergraduate research assistants, with an anticipated completion date of December 2020.

The three questions asking parents about their socialization of coping during COVID will be coded using the Responses to Stress framework (Compas et al., 2001; Abaied & Rudolph, 2011). Parent responses will be categorized as primary control coping suggestions (problem-solving, emotion expression), secondary control coping suggestions (cognitive reframing), or disengagement coping suggestions (avoidance, denial). Inter-rater reliability will be established on 20% of the participants before the remainder of the participants are coded by individual raters.

For the remaining three questions, an inductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) will be used to extract themes. This process will include the following steps: (1) the coders will read through parent responses multiple times, (2) an initial coding framework will be developed by identifying common phrases and concepts, and (3) codes will be collated into themes that will be continuously refined through consultation with the entire coding team. At least 20% of responses will be coded by multiple raters to establish reliability.

The presentation will include a description of all identified themes, specific parent quote examples of each theme, descriptive information about the frequency with which each theme was reported, and correlations between demographic characteristics (e.g. parent age, gender, race, SES, child age and gender) and endorsement of each theme. Identifying these themes is the first step towards elucidating how these parenting changes enhance or ameliorate risk for disruption in children’s and parents’ psychological well-being.

Authors

• Sarah Stanger, Allegheny College
  Presenting Author

• Alexandra Eager, Allegheny College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Suzaine Kyle Pador, Allegheny College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ella Swan, Allegheny College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maddy McClinchie, Nationwide Children’s Hospital
  Non-Presenting Author