“You Can’t Go to the Park, You Can’t Go Here, You Can’t Go There”: Exploring Parental Experiences of COVID-19 and Its Impact on Their Children’s Movement Behaviours

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak and related public health guidelines have changed the daily lives of Canadians and restricted opportunities for healthy movement behaviours for children. The purpose of this study was to explore how parents experienced the pandemic-related restrictions and how they impacted their children’s movement behaviours. Methods: Twenty-nine semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted (June–July 2020) with parents of children (5–11 years old) in Ontario and British Columbia. Interviews lasted between 24–104 min, were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analyzed. Results: Findings emphasized various individual (e.g., motivation), interpersonal (e.g., parent work schedule), built (e.g., closure of parks) and natural environment (e.g., weather) factors related to children’s movement behaviours. The findings highlighted the loss of structured activities and destinations for children’s physical activity, and restricted opportunities for outdoor play exacerbated by shrinking childhood independent mobility. Conclusion: Families are adapting to many pandemic-related challenges including adhering to public health restrictions, parents juggling multiple roles, conducting work and school from home, as well as exacerbating factors like weather. It will be important to continue to encourage outdoor time, support policies and practice that facilitate independent mobility, and develop centralized resources that help families in the maintenance of healthy movement behaviours.

Public health preventive measures and child health behaviours during COVID-19: a cohort study

“…Results of this study showed that public health preventive measures practiced by children were associated with a decrease in outdoor time and an increase in screen time during the COVID-19 pandemic between April 14 and July 15, 2020. The findings from this study contribute to the growing evidence demonstrating that the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with unhealthy movement behaviours among Canadian children (Moore et al 2020 ; McCormack et al 2020 ; Riazi et al 2021 ).…”

Few Canadian children and youth were meeting the 24-hour movement behaviour guidelines 6-months into the COVID-19 pandemic: Follow-up from a national study

“…In a recent study, Canadian parents of children ages 5 to 11 years noted the decline in their child's physical activity levels was due to, in part, their reliance on pre-programmed, structured activities to keep their child active. Parents felt tasked with the challenge of reimagining ways to increase physical activity and decrease sedentary behaviours during the pandemic (Riazi et al, 2021). Further, parents had expressed the challenge of controlling their child's screen time, stating this as a way for their child to connect with friends and complete schoolwork (Riazi et al, 2021).…”

Children’s Independent Mobility and Physical Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study with Families

“…Factors associated with an increase in physical activity during the pandemic were family encouragement, parental engagement, and dog ownership [ 16 ]. Variation in changes to movement behaviours during the pandemic has been attributed to regional difference in public health policies including school, facility and park closures [ 21 , 22 ], neighbourhood environments such as population density and proximity to major roads [ 20 ], and family-level factors such as living in a single-family versus multi-family dwelling [ 16 , 23 ]. Previous qualitative work conducted in urban areas has identified parental stress, uncertainty in navigating pandemic restrictions, and reduced access to green spaces as factors negatively impacting children’s movement behaviours during COVID-19 [ 23 ].…”

“…Variation in changes to movement behaviours during the pandemic has been attributed to regional difference in public health policies including school, facility and park closures [ 21 , 22 ], neighbourhood environments such as population density and proximity to major roads [ 20 ], and family-level factors such as living in a single-family versus multi-family dwelling [ 16 , 23 ]. Previous qualitative work conducted in urban areas has identified parental stress, uncertainty in navigating pandemic restrictions, and reduced access to green spaces as factors negatively impacting children’s movement behaviours during COVID-19 [ 23 ]. Given the noted impact of community and neighbourhood environments on children’s movement behaviours during the pandemic [ 16 , 20 ], it is important to explore the experiences of families living in a variety of contexts.…”

“…With physical distancing guidelines in place and the outdoors thought to be a lower site of transmission [ 24 ], understanding how families have experienced CIM and physical activity is important for the development of strategies and messaging to encourage healthy movement behaviours and address anxieties related to disease transmission. While previous Canadian studies have explored movement behaviours from a parental perspective [ 16 , 20 , 23 ], we are not aware of any studies that have directly included children in data generation. Capturing the qualitative experiences of children is necessary to provide nuance to our understanding of the pandemic’s impact on this group who have typically limited input in decision making, may have limited understanding of COVID-19-associated risk, and are experiencing critical developmental milestones during a period of global uncertainty [ 25 ].…”