Crisci Giulia, Mammarella Irene C, Moscardino Ughetta M M, Roch Maja, Thorell Lisa B
Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
Division of Psychology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Front Psychiatry. 2021 Dec 23;12:782353. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.782353. eCollection 2021.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, both children and their parents experienced consequences related to distance learning (DL). However, positive and negative effects have varied greatly among families, and the specific factors explaining these differences in experiences are still underexplored. In this study, we examined children's executive functions (EF) and parents' psychological well-being in relation to negative and positive effects of DL on both children and their parents. Participants were 637 Italian parents (92% mothers) with a child (48% male) aged between 6 and 19 years involved in DL due to school closures during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online survey. We performed three fixed-order hierarchical multiple regression analyses with child age and sex, children's EF deficits, and parents' psychological well-being as independent variables, and DL-related negative effects (on the child and on the parent) and DL-related positive effects as dependent variables. The results of the regression analyses showed that for negative effects of DL, younger age and greater EF deficits explained most part of the variance. Specifically, regarding negative effects on children, the most important factor was EF deficits, whereas regarding negative effects on parents, child age was the most important factor. For positive effects of DL, all variables explained only a small part of the variance. Child age was the most important factor, but EF deficits and parents' psychological well-being also had a significant impact. The effects of DL during school closures vary widely across families. Our findings indicate that intervention efforts need to consider background variables, child factors, as well as parent factors when supporting families with homeschooling in times of pandemic.
在新冠疫情期间，儿童及其父母都经历了与远程学习（DL）相关的后果。然而，家庭之间的积极和消极影响差异很大，而解释这些经历差异的具体因素仍未得到充分探索。在本研究中，我们考察了儿童的执行功能（EF）和父母的心理健康与远程学习对儿童及其父母的消极和积极影响之间的关系。参与者是637名意大利父母（92%为母亲），他们的孩子（48%为男性）年龄在6至19岁之间，由于新冠疫情第一波期间学校关闭而参与远程学习。数据通过在线调查收集。我们进行了三项固定顺序的分层多元回归分析，将儿童年龄和性别、儿童的执行功能缺陷以及父母的心理健康作为自变量，将与远程学习相关的消极影响（对儿童和对父母）以及与远程学习相关的积极影响作为因变量。回归分析结果表明，对于远程学习的消极影响，年龄较小和执行功能缺陷较大解释了大部分方差。具体而言，关于对儿童的消极影响，最重要的因素是执行功能缺陷，而关于对父母的消极影响，儿童年龄是最重要的因素。对于远程学习的积极影响，所有变量仅解释了一小部分方差。儿童年龄是最重要的因素，但执行功能缺陷和父母的心理健康也有显著影响。学校关闭期间远程学习的影响在不同家庭中差异很大。我们的研究结果表明，在疫情期间支持家庭进行家庭教育时，干预措施需要考虑背景变量、儿童因素以及父母因素。
