Parental burnout and remote learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic: Parents’ motivations for involvement.

Abstract

Given the chronic stress that families experienced during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic accompanied by school closures, many parents were vulnerable to parental burnout as they supervised their children's remote learning in addition to other roles. According to self-determination theory (SDT), when parents' basic needs are met, they are optimally motivated to support their children's learning and create environments that support their children's needs. Using a variable-and person-centered approach, we explored associations between parents' burnout, academic concern, motivational styles and profiles, and need-supportive behavior. Considering the pandemic, we expected parents with increased burnout and academic concern to report higher levels of controlled motivation or belong to a low-quality motivation profile and report less support for their children's needs. Parents with 5-to 8-year-olds were recruited, targeting states in the U.S. with the longest shelter-in-place restrictions (CA, NY), to complete an online survey, resulting in a sample (N = 218) of parents from 38 states in the U.S. Results showed parents exhibiting more autonomous motivation and two latent profiles denoting only motivation quantity but not quality. Higher burnout was related to nonoptimal motivation styles and profiles, while academic concern was related to increased motivation. Parents of older children had increased motivation. Findings highlight that even during a global pandemic, parents showed some levels of optimal motivation to support their children's remote learning. Results also highlight the importance of meeting parents' basic needs in order for them to support the developmental and learning needs of their children. Impact and ImplicationsThis study found that parents were concerned about their children's academic lag during the COVID-19 pandemic and experienced varying levels of burnout as they supported their children's learning. Despite increased burnout signaling that parents' psychological needs were not adequately met, some parents still showed interest in supporting learning. Parents who were more concerned about their children falling behind had higher levels of motivation than those who had little concern. Findings have implications for practitioners to identify and support parents' needs and concerns that will then promote more interest in involvement.

When daily challenges become too much during COVID-19: Implications of family and work demands for work–life balance among parents of children with special needs.

“…Moreover, when layering in added job stress extending from the COVID-19 pandemic that has been observed across numerous industries and occupations (Trougakos et al, 2020), parents of special needs children may be especially vulnerable to changes made to work (e.g., working at home) and school (e.g., remote learning) that have occurred during the pandemic. Since the pandemic began, job stress has risen for some employees as a consequence of numerous factors (e.g., isolation of working at home, fewer hours available to devote to work for working parents; Guntuku et al, 2020), which may be particularly challenging to handle when parents are facing the strain of supporting their children’s remote learning in addition to additional care demands for their children with special needs (Nyanamba et al, 2022). Maintaining WLB while combining daily work and family demands might therefore be even more difficult for parents of children with special needs who perceive higher levels of chronic stress during the pandemic.…”

Family experiences during illness outbreaks: A systematic review

“…For studies that reported children’s ages ( n = 80), five focused specifically on families with pre-schoolers, nine included school-aged children(Aznar et al, 2021; Chen et al, 2021; Dubois-Comtois et al, 2021; Hussong et al, 2022; McRae et al, 2021; Nyanamba et al, 2022; Ren et al, 2021; Rodriguez et al, 2021; Sun et al, 2021), 16 included adolescents and the other 50 studies included families with children in a wide age range (e.g., children under 12). Five studies investigated families where children had special needs, including children with neurodevelopmental disability (Bentenuto et al, 2021; Montirosso et al, 2021), externalising difficulties (Berry et al, 2021), Autism Spectrum Disorder (Colizzi et al, 2020), and children enrolled in a trial of preventive iron supplementation (Hamadani et al, 2020).…”

“…For studies that reported children's ages (n = 80), five focused specifically on families with pre-schoolers, nine included school-aged children (Aznar et al, 2021;Dubois-Comtois et al, 2021;Hussong et al, 2022;McRae et al, 2021;Nyanamba et al, 2022;Sun et al, 2021) (Bentenuto et al, 2021;Montirosso et al, 2021), externalising difficulties (Berry et al, 2021), Autism Spectrum Disorder (Colizzi et al, 2020), and children enrolled in a trial of preventive iron supplementation (Hamadani et al, 2020).…”

Factors Influencing Parents’ Intention on Primary School Students’ Choices of Online Learning during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

“…However, existing studies on online learning have focused more on students, teachers, technology, and government policies in the online learning process and paid little attention to parents [16]. While some studies have also noted the importance of parental involvement in student learning during the pandemic, the main focus has been on the motivation and role of parents of special education students and their involvement in student online learning [17][18][19][20]. Existing studies lack systematic research on primary school parents' perception and evaluation of online learning [21], especially after online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”