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Caregivers' perceived changes in engaged time with preschool-aged children during COVID-19: Familial correlates and relations to children's learning behavior and emotional distress.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting containment measures have forced many children and their caregivers around the world to spend unprecedented amounts of time at home. Based on a sample of 764 households with preschool-aged children in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic began, this study examined how primary caregivers perceived changes in the amount of time spent engaging with their children (i.e., engaged time) from the start of the pandemic and whether these changes were associated with children's learning behavior and emotional distress. The results showed that primary caregivers generally perceived increases in the amount of engaged time spent on indoor activities with their children but decreases in the amount of engaged time spent playing with their children outdoors. A bigger family size and greater loss of family income during the pandemic were associated with bigger perceived increases in caregivers' engaged time spent on indoor activities, whilst a higher level of parental education was associated with bigger perceived decreases in engaged time spent playing with children outdoors. The family's poorer physical health and higher levels of chaos during the pandemic were related to smaller perceived increases in caregivers' engaged time spent on educational activities. Finally, although bigger perceived increases in caregivers' indoor engaged time (e.g., time spent on educational activities) were associated with higher levels of positive learning behavior and fewer symptoms of anxiety and withdrawal in the children, bigger perceived decreases in outdoor play time were associated with fewer symptoms of anxiety and withdrawal. These findings offer valuable insights into caregivers' allocation of engaged time with their preschool-aged children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

SUBMITTER: Zhang X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9005331 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Institutionalization is an exceptional and temporary measure that occurs when there is a violation of rights; lasting until the family reintegration or, in the impossibility of this, the placement in a substitute family through adoption. Among the main reasons for institutionalization in Brazil are the financial difficulties, abandonment, domestic violence, drug addiction, homelessness of the responsible for the child, sexual abuse, and the loss of parents by death or imprisonment. Although children and adolescents have their rights assured when they are institutionalized, the care provided in these spaces does not include all their needs and demands, which may damage their affective-relational development. Maternal deprivation in the first years of life can be detrimental to the development of these children, if not provided by adequate substitute care. Therefore, to understand which place the institutionalized baby occupies in the imaginary of the social caregivers and, from this, how is established the relationship regarding the care, is of fundamental importance to assess and address the risk factors in child development at this stage of life and in situation of institutionalization. This is an exploratory and descriptive study, developed in a childcare institution, located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, capable of accommodating up to 20 babies between 0 and 2 years old. Data collection was performed with nine employees, eight social caregivers and one general service assistant who work directly in the care of the institutionalized babies. Drawing-Story with Theme (DS-T) procedures were used. Qualitative analysis was based on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The appreciation of the nine applied Drawing-Story procedures allowed the establishment of three discussion axes representations of baby, baby care, and early separation process. This study concluded that the difficulties that permeate the context of caregivers’ work are the high turnover of institutionalized children, as well as employees, the difficulty of dealing with processes of bonding and breaking bonds and no recognition of the profession. We highlight that the place that these babies occupy in the imaginary of these caregivers influences the bond they establish with the children hence the care offered to the babies. It is also noteworthy that these caregivers exhibited anguish and suffering from the reasons they believed led the children to be institutionalized.

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Caregivers' perceived changes in engaged time with preschool-aged children during COVID-19: Familial correlates and relations to children's learning behavior and emotional distress.

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