Examining children's questions and parents' responses about COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on both adults' and children's everyday lives. Conversations about biological processes such as viruses, illness, and health have started to occur more frequently in daily interactions. Although there are many guidelines for parents about how to talk to their children about the coronavirus, only a few studies have examined what children are curious about the coronavirus and how they make sense of the changes in their everyday lives. This study addresses this need by examining children's questions and parents' responses about the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Turkish sociocultural context. Using an online survey, we asked 184 parents of 3-to 12-year-olds to report their children's questions about coronavirus and their answers to these questions. We analyzed children's questions and parents' responses using qualitative and quantitative analyses (Menendez et al., 2021). Children's questions were mainly about the nature of the virus (34%), followed by lifestyle changes (20%). Older children were more likely to ask about school/work and less likely to ask about lifestyle changes than younger children. Parents responded to children's questions by providing realistic explanations (48%) and reassurance (20%). Only 18% of children's questions were explanation-seeking "why" and "how" questions. Parents were more likely to provide explanations if children's questions were explanation-seeking. Family activities such as playing games and cooking were the most common coping strategies reported by parents (69.2%). The findings have important implications for children's learning about the coronavirus and how adults can support children's learning and help them develop coping strategies in different sociocultural contexts.

Making sense of the pandemic: Parent-child conversations in two cultural contexts

“…Several studies have tried to capture the understanding fostered by parents via collecting parental reports of the questions children pose and responses parents provide [ 41 – 43 ]. These studies show that according to parents, younger children ask more about the changes in everyday life, while older children also want to know about the consequences of the disease [ 41 – 43 ].…”

“…Several studies have tried to capture the understanding fostered by parents via collecting parental reports of the questions children pose and responses parents provide [ 41 – 43 ]. These studies show that according to parents, younger children ask more about the changes in everyday life, while older children also want to know about the consequences of the disease [ 41 – 43 ]. About one third of the questions are explanation seeking questions in the US context [ 42 ], but only one fifth can be classified as such in the Turkish context [ 43 ], suggesting that there could be cultural differences in the questions children ask or parents attend to.…”

“…These studies show that according to parents, younger children ask more about the changes in everyday life, while older children also want to know about the consequences of the disease [ 41 – 43 ]. About one third of the questions are explanation seeking questions in the US context [ 42 ], but only one fifth can be classified as such in the Turkish context [ 43 ], suggesting that there could be cultural differences in the questions children ask or parents attend to. Interestingly, Turkish parents provide explanations to their children rather than leaving the questions unattended [ 43 ], while in about half of the cases parents in the US do not provide explanations [ 42 ].…”

“…About one third of the questions are explanation seeking questions in the US context [ 42 ], but only one fifth can be classified as such in the Turkish context [ 43 ], suggesting that there could be cultural differences in the questions children ask or parents attend to. Interestingly, Turkish parents provide explanations to their children rather than leaving the questions unattended [ 43 ], while in about half of the cases parents in the US do not provide explanations [ 42 ]. The responses children receive are realistic but mostly very general [ 41 , 42 ].…”

“…If parents provide more specific responses, then parents of younger children will reference germs in their responses, while parents of older children will be more likely to use illness analogies in their explanations [ 41 ]. The responses to children’s questions about the reasons for restrictions during the pandemic most often center on the safety and mitigation measures [ 41 – 43 ] and sometimes also authority related explanations. Also, parents often report wanting to shield their children from COVID-19 related information [ 42 , 43 ].…”