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Perspectives of socioeconomically disadvantaged parents on their children's coping during COVID-19: Implications for practice
Citation
Seivwright, AN and Callis, Z and Flatau, PR, Perspectives of socioeconomically disadvantaged parents on their children's coping during COVID-19: Implications for practice, Children & Society pp. 1-6. ISSN 0951-0605 (2022) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
Abstract
Disruptions caused by COVID-19 have the potential to create long-term negative impacts on children's well-being and development, especially among socioeconomically disadvantaged children. However, we know little about how socioeconomically disadvantaged families are coping with the pandemic, nor the types of support needed. This study presents qualitative analysis of responses to an open-ended question asking parents how children are coping with the restrictions associated with COVID-19, to identify areas in which these cohorts can be supported. Four main themes were identified: health concerns, schooling difficulties, social isolation and adjustment to restrictions. Health concerns included exacerbation of pre-existing health conditions, fear about the virus, difficulty getting children to understand the pandemic and increased sedentary behaviour. Schooling difficulties referred to the challenges of home schooling, which were behavioural (e.g. difficulty concentrating) and logistical (e.g. technology). Social isolation, expressed as missing friends, family and/or institutions was common. Finally, parents expressed that children experienced both positive adjustments to restrictions, such as spending more time with family, and negative adjustments such as increased screen time. Many responses from parents touched on topics across multiple themes, indicating a need for comprehensive, holistic assessment of children's and families' needs in the provision of support services. The content of the themes supports calls for resources to support children and families including increased financial and practical accessibility of social services, physical health and exercise support, mental health support and COVID-19 communication guides.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | children, COVID-19, pandemic, parenting, socioeconomic disadvantage, support needs |
| Research Division: | Human Society |
| Research Group: | Sociology |
| Research Field: | Sociology of inequalities |
| Objective Division: | Law, Politics and Community Services |
| Objective Group: | Community services |
| Objective Field: | Children's services and childcare |
| UTAS Author: | Seivwright, AN (Dr Ami Seivwright) |
| ID Code: | 151239 |
| Year Published: | 2022 |
| Deposited By: | CALE Research Institute |
| Deposited On: | 2022-07-26 |
| Last Modified: | 2022-09-16 |
| Downloads: | 4 View Download Statistics |
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