Overwhelmed by Learning in Lockdown: Effects of Covid-19-enforced homeschooling on parents’ wellbeing

Primary ,Kindergarden,Secondary

With the closure of schools due to the Covid-19-pandemic, parents of school-children had to quickly adapt their daily schedules by taking over responsibilities of homeschooling for their children, while arranging their own schedule. This study first identifies the parents who are most challenged by having to ensure homeschooling for their children and then assesses how homeschooling affects different dimensions of parents’ wellbeing. Analyzing data from a large general population representative panel survey in Switzerland, we compare subjective wellbeing before the Covid-19-outbreak to wellbeing at the end of the semi-lockdown. More than one third of parents report being overwhelmed by homeschooling obligations for their children. Women, mid-aged and lower-educated individuals as well as those with young children are particularly overwhelmed. Moreover, the responsibility to provide homeschooling impacts parents’ subjective wellbeing in terms of increased levels of negative affect. Parents’ general life satisfaction, stress and positive affect are not affected. Overall, our results highlight that a substantive share of parents in Switzerland is overwhelmed by having to provide homeschooling and that this translates into a reduction in wellbeing in terms of negative affect. However, homeschooling obligations do not result into decreases in wellbeing on all levels and across all parental groups. We derive recommendations for educational and public health policies.

marieke.heers@fors.unil.ch

Diese Information wurde am 16. April 2021 aus dem Repositorium Airtable entnommen.

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