Parents whose children received virtual instruction or a combination of virtual and in-person instruction previously reported an increased risk of 11 of 17 indicators of child and parent well-being, according to the new CDC study. The agency’s researchers looked at responses to the October and November 2020 survey of 1,290 parents with children 5 to 12 years old.
Nearly 25% of the parents whose children received virtual instruction or combined instruction reported deterioration in their children’s mental or emotional health, compared with 16% of the parents whose children received personal instruction.
They were also more likely to say that their children were less physically active, spent less time outside, and spent less time with friends.
“The difference is like night and day, especially for my kids,” said Stephanie Kokinos, a mother of two from New York City. “I think we’ve normalized this way of distance learning, and there’s nothing normal about it.”
Kokinos has two daughters, ages 5 and 7. She is currently unemployed and her husband works from home.
“I can’t even think about it if I was working at this time,” she said. “It was really a full-time job, just to make sure their needs are met from an academic standpoint, but more specifically from an emotional and well-being standpoint.”
Since the start of the pandemic, her children have faced four separate school closures and returned in person on March 19.
“It’s very, very damaging – that back and forth with kids – especially at this age. It’s really hard to put yourself as an adult, with a fully functioning frontal lobe, (in their shoes with) what they experience and how they acting, ‘said Kokinos.
“Because you see it differently (with every child). Some kids withdraw, some kids have lost their spark, they’ve lost their minds. Some kids don’t like learning anymore,” she said. ‘They’re burned out, they have a headache, their eyes hurt. They don’t get social interaction. Their needs are not being met – period. ‘
Parents are also feeling the effects
This trend continued when parents answered questions about their own well-being.
About 54% of the parents whose children received virtual instruction reported emotional distress, compared with 38% of the parents whose children received personal instruction. Parents of children who received virtual instruction were also more likely to report job losses, concerns about job stability, childcare challenges, work-childcare conflicts, and sleep problems.
Parents of children who received combined instruction were more likely than those of children who received personal instruction to report job loss and conflicts between work and childcare. About 43% reported emotional distress.
Lauren Dover, from Brighton, Illinois, is the mother of four children – ages 11, 6, 4 and 2. She has chosen to do distance learning with her oldest two, Brady in fifth grade and Ben in second grade , since the start of the pandemic.
“I’m a stay-at-home mom, and I think it was better for our family to do it at home, especially since I know a lot of parents don’t have the option to stay at home. So I wanted them to have that space in it. to occupy the building, ”she said.
While Brady struggled to miss out on the social aspect of personal school because of what they call the “ big germ ” in their household, Ben has had an even harder time.
“(Ben) is very, very outgoing. When he did pre-K, he was the class leader. He was just the social butterfly – everyone wanted to talk to Ben,” she said. “He’s got so much energy, and it’s hard for him to be home.”
Addressing this year’s specific mental health issues
Non-white parents and those with children in public school were more likely to report that their children received virtual instruction. Nearly 66% of Hispanic parents and 55% of Black parents reported that their children received virtual instruction, compared to about 32% of White parents.
Stephanie Burrow-Carpenter teaches third graders at Frayser Elementary in Louisville, Kentucky, who has just returned to in-person classes.
“I think it certainly varies by student and by situation. Some children have been through a lot more trauma than others,” she said.
Because of that trauma on top of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the shift between distance learning and personal learning, she has placed special emphasis on the mental health of her students.
This is evident from her students’ “lunchbunch” session with a mental health counselor. Students also had weekly check-ins with the counselor, where they were given an online form to ask for help without saying it out loud.
Children who do not receive personal instruction and their parents “may be at increased risk for negative mental, emotional or physical health outcomes,” and they may need more support to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, the researchers wrote.
“Community action to reduce the incidence of COVID-19 and support mitigation strategies in schools are critical to support students’ return to personal learning,” the researchers wrote.
Not everyone is ready for one more change
President Joe Biden’s administration has pushed for schools to reopen during the pandemic, and the CDC recently released guidelines for elementary schools on how to safely open them for personal learning.
Now his children’s schools are transitioning to a hybrid system – where he said one teacher will simultaneously serve two classrooms, virtually and in person.
“I’m sitting here trying to balance, are we trying to roll the dice and take our kids to school? At risk for everything? Or do we go into this knowing that it will invariably only get harder for this last push to the end of” the year? It just gets harder, “said Fagundes.
Experts say going back to personal school isn’t good for every child’s mental health. Some kids who were teased or bullied in school or who felt more free to express themselves at home outside their school’s social hierarchies don’t necessarily want to go back.
Some of these benefits that children saw at the start of the pandemic may still play a role – such as an increase in independence and better skills such as executive functions: the ability to plan, solve problems and move on.
Just because we were used to children going to school in person five days a week and then spending much of their time in adult-led activities led by adults doesn’t mean that’s the only – or best – way. for children to spend their childhood, ”said Skenazy.
For parents struggling to navigate this difficult time, Skenazy recommends thinking back to their own childhood and focusing on the extra time their kids have outside of distance classes.
“When kids explain games or invent new ones, they build their communication skills. Baking? Basic math skills. Helping in the home teaches us responsibility, without which it’s hard to succeed in school – or anywhere,” she said.
“So I would like parents to feel good about the ‘downtime’ of this strange year and recognize the growth their kids are going through, even when things seem disjointed and a little crazy and the distance learning isn’t all that great. “