Impact of COVID-19 on the Well-being of Parents with Young Children: A Qualitative Study

• In Event: COVID-19 and parental well-being

Abstract

Parental well-being is associated with children’s outcomes and well-being (Griffith, 2020; Huebener et al., 2021; Spinelli et al. 2020), marital relationship (Thomas et al., 2017) and compliance with health measures (Krekel et al. 2020). However, Covid-19 pandemic has impacted well-being by disrupting the lives of many people which has resulted in increased psychological distress (Dawes et al., 2021). Though the Covid-19 pandemic has had a global reach, it has not affected everyone equally (Conti, 2020). Parents of school-age children reported increased levels of stress during the Covid-19 pandemic when compared to adults without children (Canady, 2020). A closer observation provided evidence that parents with younger children reported more stress compared to parents with older or adolescent children (Kaufman et al., 2020). Among other sources of stress, 35% of parents with young children lost child care (Patrick et al., 2020) and took-on the responsibility of educating and caring for their children on top of other responsibilities (Furman et al., 2021). Most of the existing studies have used surveys to understand the impact of Covid-19 on parents’ well-being. To the best of our knowledge, no study has examined the impact of Covid-19 on under-resourced populations. Using focus groups, we explored the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the well-being of 118 parents with children 0-5- years-old from under-resourced populations (i.e., black, and African American, Hispanic and Latinx, refugees and immigrant, native American and American Indian, families experiencing poverty and/ or homelessness and families providing foster care, see Table 1 for demographic information) throughout the state. We asked two main research questions: 1) What types of impacts have families experienced related to the Covid-19 pandemic? and 2) How were families coping with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic? Results of this study may help service-providers to better target support to these parents. Using thematic analysis, we identified eight themes related to the impact of Covid-19: (1) Losing child care and taking teaching/care responsibility, (2) new rules and routines, (3) loss of basic needs, (4) fear of the virus, (5) loss of social support, (6) loss of jobs, (7) deeper connections and (8) enhanced hygiene. We also identified four themes related to how parents coped with the impacts of the pandemic: (i) engaging in hobbies; (ii) making plans; (iii) accepting and (iv) avoiding arguments, see Table 2 for themes. Implications are as follows: Employers need to support parents’ autonomy and provide flexibility at work as these parents handle both family and child care roles. Interventionists need to develop and tailor mindfulness and stress reduction interventions to support parents’ self-compassion and flexibility in thinking. Parents need to be directed to resources for mental health which may be more helpful in coping with the impacts of Covid-19. Teachers may prepare lesson samples and help parents role play to support parents’ self-efficacy in teaching children. The public health sector needs to support parents to talk and share fears and negative emotions related to the pandemic and policymakers need to prioritize keeping child care programs open.

Authors

• Jamlick Peter Ondieki Bosire, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Kathleen Cranley Gallagher, University of Nebraska
  Presenting Author

• Alexandra M. Daro, Buffett Early Childhood Institute