Have you eaten?: Understanding Asian families during the COVID-19 pandemic

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, most schools and non-essential businesses were closed across the United States by April 2020 (Mervosh, Lu, & Swales, 2020). For many families, their homes had become their schools, workplaces, and social spaces. The physical spaces available to families has shrunk considerably. During this time, many parents of school-aged children faced the challenge of adapting to a remote work environment or going to work in person and also supporting the distance learning of their children. The purpose of the project is to understand and document how Asian and Asian American families in the United States are experiencing changes in their homes, schools, and communities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

We draw on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory (1979) to understand the collapse of the physical spaces where schools and workplaces (meso and exo) are now in the same space as the nuclear family (micro). Participants include Asian and Asian American parents/caregivers of school-aged children in the United States. The study uses photovoice methodology, a participatory visual research methodology (Wang & Burris, 1997), to encourage Asian and Asian American families to tell their own stories about their COVID-19 experiences. Participants participated in four semi-structured virtual interviews. Participants shared photographs of their daily lives and described their photographs as they relate to changes to daily routines in their home, children’s schooling, and community life. The study is in the midst of data collection, however, three important themes have emerged. These themes include a) food is a focus for families, procuring, growing, and providing food, b) family routines are being negotiated in terms of physical space and time to support learning, and c) parents are providing more hands-on learning activities at home. Our findings will inform families of other racial and ethnic groups living in the United States as well as families living in other country contexts regarding the compression of the home, school, and community space.

Authors

• Peggy A. Kong, Drexel University
  Presenting Author

• Xiaoran Yu, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anuradha Sachdev, East Stroudsberg University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Xinwei Zhang, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author