Home Learning Environments During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Caregivers’ and Children’s Perceptions

When Kinship Caregivers Became Teachers: Role Stress and Strain from Remote Learning during COVID-19

“…One study suggested that, at the start of the pandemic, "home and school environments became intertwined" [37] (p. 2). As most families did not have a designated school or workspace in their homes, caregivers had to rearrange their homes, sometimes sacrificing other needed spaces, so that their children had a dedicated place to learn [2,8,13,14,16,20]. If multiple children were learning online simultaneously, it was ideal to use different rooms so that each child could hear and participate; however, families living in apartments or with family did not always have space for this [20].…”

“…Parents working from home were especially prone to role conflict and overload while their children were learning at home [6]. One of the most consistent findings throughout the literature from this time is how much caregivers struggled with figuring out how to meet the demands of their job, take care of their children, and support their learning [2,7,16,17,20,23]. Families faced difficult trade-offs, including switching off between working and teaching throughout the day [32], changing schedules to support their children, but working longer hours and potentially sacrificing sleep or time to relax [3], taking time off or reducing how much they worked [23], and deciding whether or not to seek outside care for their child, despite concerns about the virus [5].…”

“…In addition to the role conflict and overload that caregivers working from home experienced, multiple studies noted that a significant stressor was the "non-stop, 24 h a day cycle of working and homeschooling" [4] (p. 12) that offered no opportunities for breaks-in proximity from their children or time [5,16]. A study of foster parents noted that "parents described how emotionally draining it was to both work and parent continuously without any breaks, because respite was unavailable and the health risks made childcare and/or babysitters undesirable, even if they were available" [5] (p. 377).…”

“…A study of foster parents noted that "parents described how emotionally draining it was to both work and parent continuously without any breaks, because respite was unavailable and the health risks made childcare and/or babysitters undesirable, even if they were available" [5] (p. 377). Without time to be alone and focus on work, and with their children in the same physical space, caregivers found it especially difficult to fulfill the many tasks awaiting them [16].…”

“…This burgeoning system of remote learning-while critically necessary-caused many families to bear the burden of not only raising their children, but also educating them, while navigating their own employment transitions, fears about the virus, and social isolation [4,6,[12][13][14]. The literature studying the events of 2020 is clear; for many families, the closure of schools was the most difficult part of the pandemic-related lockdowns, to the detriment of their mental health and well-being [3,7,[15][16][17][18][19][20].…”