Children's activities, parental concerns, and child care service utilization in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic
IntroductionIn the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, most Canadian provinces and territories enacted public health measures to reduce virus spread, leading most child care centers across the country to limit or halt in-person service delivery. While it is broadly known that the range of activit...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1047234/full |
| _version_ | 1827913403938635776 |
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| author | Jasmine Zhang Jasmine Zhang Jackson Smith Jackson Smith Dillon Browne Dillon Browne |
| author_facet | Jasmine Zhang Jasmine Zhang Jackson Smith Jackson Smith Dillon Browne Dillon Browne |
| author_sort | Jasmine Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionIn the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, most Canadian provinces and territories enacted public health measures to reduce virus spread, leading most child care centers across the country to limit or halt in-person service delivery. While it is broadly known that the range of activities available to children and youth reduced drastically as a result, research has yet to explore if and how children's activities shifted in relation to changes in child care arrangements.MethodChildren's activities during the early months of the pandemic were assessed based on parent-report data (n = 19,959). Activity patterns were extracted via latent profile analysis. Thereafter, differences in child-care related outcomes across profiles were compared via logistic regression models.ResultsLatent profile analysis yielded three distinct activity patterns: Screenies (91.5%) were children who engaged in high amounts of screen use relative to all other activities; Analog children (3.1%) exhibited mostly off-screen activities (e.g., reading, physical exercise); and children in the Balanced group (5.4%) appeared to pursue a wide variety of activities. Children were more likely to fall into the Screenies or Balanced profiles when caregivers reported changes in child care arrangements. Moreover, parents of children with Balanced activity profiles were more likely to be planning to use child care when services reopened post-pandemic, compared to parents of children in the Analog group.DiscussionThe present findings call attention to heterogeneity in children's activities during COVID-19, which should be considered in the context of pandemic-related child care closures. Implications for children, families, and child care services during and beyond COVID-19 are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T02:29:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c0db1a34deb94953896374cc5439a266 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-2565 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T02:29:31Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-c0db1a34deb94953896374cc5439a2662023-06-30T00:25:20ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652023-06-011110.3389/fpubh.2023.10472341047234Children's activities, parental concerns, and child care service utilization in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemicJasmine Zhang0Jasmine Zhang1Jackson Smith2Jackson Smith3Dillon Browne4Dillon Browne5Whole Family Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaCentre for Mental Health Research and Treatment, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaWhole Family Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaCentre for Mental Health Research and Treatment, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaWhole Family Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaCentre for Mental Health Research and Treatment, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaIntroductionIn the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, most Canadian provinces and territories enacted public health measures to reduce virus spread, leading most child care centers across the country to limit or halt in-person service delivery. While it is broadly known that the range of activities available to children and youth reduced drastically as a result, research has yet to explore if and how children's activities shifted in relation to changes in child care arrangements.MethodChildren's activities during the early months of the pandemic were assessed based on parent-report data (n = 19,959). Activity patterns were extracted via latent profile analysis. Thereafter, differences in child-care related outcomes across profiles were compared via logistic regression models.ResultsLatent profile analysis yielded three distinct activity patterns: Screenies (91.5%) were children who engaged in high amounts of screen use relative to all other activities; Analog children (3.1%) exhibited mostly off-screen activities (e.g., reading, physical exercise); and children in the Balanced group (5.4%) appeared to pursue a wide variety of activities. Children were more likely to fall into the Screenies or Balanced profiles when caregivers reported changes in child care arrangements. Moreover, parents of children with Balanced activity profiles were more likely to be planning to use child care when services reopened post-pandemic, compared to parents of children in the Analog group.DiscussionThe present findings call attention to heterogeneity in children's activities during COVID-19, which should be considered in the context of pandemic-related child care closures. Implications for children, families, and child care services during and beyond COVID-19 are discussed.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1047234/fullchildren's activitieschild care servicesCOVID-19latent profile analysisparental concerns |
| spellingShingle | Jasmine Zhang Jasmine Zhang Jackson Smith Jackson Smith Dillon Browne Dillon Browne Children's activities, parental concerns, and child care service utilization in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic Frontiers in Public Health children's activities child care services COVID-19 latent profile analysis parental concerns |
| title | Children's activities, parental concerns, and child care service utilization in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full | Children's activities, parental concerns, and child care service utilization in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Children's activities, parental concerns, and child care service utilization in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Children's activities, parental concerns, and child care service utilization in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_short | Children's activities, parental concerns, and child care service utilization in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_sort | children s activities parental concerns and child care service utilization in the early stages of the covid 19 pandemic |
| topic | children's activities child care services COVID-19 latent profile analysis parental concerns |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1047234/full |
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