Parental Behaviors and Involvement in Children’s Digital Activities among Israeli Jewish and Arab Families during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

Research Findings: The study explored everyday parenting behaviors and their relations to parents' involvement in their children's digital activities during the COVID-19 lockdown, among Israeli Jewish and Arab parents of young children. We studied parents' behaviors through the prism of the Parenting Pentagon Model (PPM), which integrates five constructs of daily parenting behaviors that are beneficial for children's development: Partnership between the caretakers, Parental Leadership, Love Behaviors, Encouraging Independence, and Adherence to Rules. Participants, 487 parents (290 Jewish and 197 Arab) of children (2-to-8-years-old) answered questionnaires. Findings showed that both Jewish and Arab parents reported that Love behaviors were most frequent during the lockdown, followed by Leadership. Encouragement of Independence, adherence to Rules and Partnership were less frequent. Additionally, the more parents behaved beneficially in their daily life (according to PPM), the more they were involved in their child's digital activities, beyond family background (child's age, parent's education, and family's size). Practice or Policy: The results can assist in planning support programs for parents during times of crisis. Parental guidance regarding beneficial parenting and advantageous involvement in children's digital activities may be more helpful than restrictions and warnings regarding the risk of young children's exposure to digital activities and screens.

Engagement of Families Attending Early Childhood Services During 5-Month School Closure Due to COVID-19: An Italian Experience

“…It is essential to individuate parents’ needs and support them in addressing their educational role. However, this does not always happen, and the pandemic highlighted the need of mentoring families in parenting their children during learning from home ( Listyaningrum et al, 2020 ; Meoded Karabanov et al, 2021 ). This pilot study could be a reference for policy-makers and managers of educational services in implementing activities and initiatives aimed at filling the gap between families and schools.…”

“…For this reason, following the COVID-19 outbreak, schools all over the world reorganized and activated new services to support families and guarantee children educational continuity (see for example, Bubb and Jones, 2020;Caffo et al, 2020;Dong et al, 2020;Dube, 2020;Ferraro et al, 2020;Parmigiani et al, 2020;Putri et al, 2020;Rasmitadila et al, 2020;Zhao et al, 2020;Harper et al, 2021). However, these studies mainly included children and adolescents from 3 years old up to 18 years old, and only few studies included children younger than 3 years and their families (Listyaningrum et al, 2020;Szente, 2020;Lee et al, 2021;Meoded Karabanov et al, 2021).…”

Prácticas de crianza de las familias españolas durante el periodo de confinamiento por coronavirus

“…Diferentes organismos internacionales (como la OMS o UNICEF) han adoptado esta perspectiva proporcionando recursos para fomentar una crianza positiva durante el confinamiento, que fortalezca a las familias, ofreciendo estrategias para cuidar y responder a las necesidades de sus hijos e hijas (Cluver et al, 2020). Estudios recientes realizados durante la pandemia parecen corroborar este propósito (Karabanov et al, 2020), observándose que las familias parecen haber priorizado las prácticas de crianza relacionadas con el afecto y las emociones, centrando además en menor medida su atención en las normas y la promoción de la independencia de los niños.…”

“…Model" (Karabanov et al, 2020;Sagi, 2020;Sagi y Aram, 2019), elaborado por un equipo de investigación de la universidad de Israel para valorar las prácticas de crianza ideales de padres y madres, partiendo de un modelo diseñado desde la práctica clínica y orientadora con familias.…”

“…Los resultados obtenidos al analizar las cinco dimensiones consideradas en el cuestionario sobre parentalidad muestran que los padres y madres participantes dan gran importancia al amor incondicional por encima de otros aspectos de la crianza, aunque en todos los principios obtienen puntuaciones elevadas, lo que podría indicar que la percepción que tienen sobre su forma de criar durante el confinamiento es bastante positiva, cercana a lo recomendado por los expertos. Estos resultados son coherentes con estudios previos realizados con el mismo instrumento, tanto en situaciones de crianza normalizada (Sagi, 2020), como durante el periodo de confinamiento (Karabanov et al, 2020). Cuando se pregunta a los participantes sobre cómo han interactuado con sus hijos mientras han estado confinados, los padres españoles se identifican especialmente como proveedores de amor incondicional, lo que se traduce en cariño, atenciones y transmisión de seguridad personal a los niños.…”