Abstract
Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, both children and their parents experienced consequences related to distance learning (DL). However, positive and negative effects have varied greatly among families, and the specific factors explaining these differences in experiences are still underexplored. In this study, we examined children's executive functions (EF) and parents' psychological well-being in relation to negative and positive effects of DL on both children and their parents.Method: Participants were 637 Italian parents (92% mothers) with a child (48% male) aged between 6 and 19 years involved in DL due to school closures during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online survey. We performed three fixed-order hierarchical multiple regression analyses with child age and sex, children's EF deficits, and parents' psychological well-being as independent variables, and DL-related negative effects (on the child and on the parent) and DL-related positive effects as dependent variables.Results: The results of the regression analyses showed that for negative effects of DL, younger age and greater EF deficits explained most part of the variance. Specifically, regarding negative effects on children, the most important factor was EF deficits, whereas regarding negative effects on parents, child age was the most important factor. For positive effects of DL, all variables explained only a small part of the variance. Child age was the most important factor, but EF deficits and parents' psychological well-being also had a significant impact.Conclusions: The effects of DL during school closures vary widely across families. Our findings indicate that intervention efforts need to consider background variables, child factors, as well as parent factors when supporting families with homeschooling in times of pandemic.
Highlights
Effects of Distance Learning Among Italian Families During the COVID-19 PandemicChildren, adolescents, and their parents have experienced important modifications to daily life activities due to the COVID19 pandemic
The results showed that negative effects of distance learning (DL) on parents and children were strongly associated, and both these variables were negatively associated with positive effects of DL
Child age was significantly associated with all other variables, with younger age being related to more negative effects on both parents and children and less positive effects
Summary
Effects of Distance Learning Among Italian Families During the COVID-19 PandemicChildren, adolescents, and their parents have experienced important modifications to daily life activities due to the COVID19 pandemic. Children troubled by school due to bullying or other stressors may have experienced the situation of DL as relieving (6) Overall, these findings emphasize that families varied greatly with regard to their experiences of DL, but little is known about specific child and parental factors contributing to these differences. We examined children’s executive functions (EF) and parents’ psychological well-being in relation to negative and positive effects of DL on both children and their parents. Many previous studies examining the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic did not examine the role of background factors (2), such as child age, child sex and family’s SES (7). A few studies have shown larger DLrelated negative effects for younger compared to older children (3), and larger lockdown-related effects on families with low compared to high parental educational level (12).
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