{"id":15586,"date":"2020-11-04T10:36:18","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T10:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/?p=15586"},"modified":"2024-11-10T15:54:13","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T15:54:13","slug":"parental-beliefs-online-education-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/parental-beliefs-online-education-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Parental beliefs about online education: Reflections on the Italian experience during COVID-19 quarantine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the likelihood that millions of children around the world will be alienated from school and at risk of academic failure.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Italy was the first western country hit by COVID-19 and one of the countries in Europe with the highest death rates. National lockdown restrictions came into force in March 2020 and schools were closed until the end of the academic year. Now new lockdowns are feared. Teachers\u2019 and parents\u2019 engagement in online schooling and remote learning has emerged as one of the most significant challenges for the country.<\/p>\n<p>Children experiencing lockdown measures at home are likely to have accumulated multiple stresses related to their lack of or low engagement in school-based instructional and social activities. With schools closed, parents have become full-time child care providers and home-school teachers, responsible, more than ever, for <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/parental-involvement-in-education\/\">supporting their children\u2019s educational<\/a> and developmental needs.<\/p>\n<p>Now Italian young people, their families, and their teachers are facing the challenge of in-person or blended (partly in-person, partly online) education.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cHow well both parents and their children believe they are capable of handling challenges associated with online education was associated with higher child autonomy around online education, better academic performance, and fewer child emotional difficulties.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Last summer in Italy, we conducted an anonymous survey of parents with 6- to 18-year-old children about their beliefs about online education. Here are some preliminary data:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>250 parents, 83% of whom were mothers, answered the survey.<\/li>\n<li>The average age of the children was 11 (SD = 3.84) and 53% were boys.<\/li>\n<li>The parents were from the center and south of Italy.<\/li>\n<li>48% lived in an independent house, while 52% lived in an apartment.<\/li>\n<li>90% said they had WIFI in their home during the lockdown.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our study was inspired by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Albert_Bandura\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Albert Bandura<\/a>\u2018s studies on self-efficacy beliefs, which showed that people\u2019s actions are strongly influenced by how much they believe they are capable of reaching a goal or effectively handling a challenging situation. We conducted a pilot study to examine parents\u2019 self-efficacy beliefs toward the challenges of online education during quarantine (we asked, for example, \u201cDuring quarantine, how well did you believe you were capable of supporting your child doing homework during online education?\u201d). We also examined parents\u2019 perceptions of their children\u2019s beliefs about feeling capable of handling the challenges (we asked, for example, \u201cDuring quarantine, how well do you think your child felt capable of asking for support to do homework from you\/a classmate\/a teacher during online education?\u201d). Hereafter I refer to those constructs as parents\u2019 and children\u2019s efficacy beliefs toward online education.<\/p>\n<p>First, both parents\u2019 and children\u2019s efficacy beliefs toward online education were associated with higher autonomy on the part of the children around online education (e.g., \u201cDuring quarantine, how often did your child attend online education autonomously, without you having to remind him\/her it was time to do so?\u201d). Similarly higher parents\u2019 and  efficacy beliefs correlated with better academic performance and fewer emotional difficulties on the part of the children at the end of academic year.<\/p>\n<p>Second, parents\u2019 support for their children\u2019s academic activities before the COVID-19 pandemic started, as well as parents\u2019 and children\u2019s familiarity with online communication platforms before the pandemic, were associated with higher parental self-efficacy beliefs toward online education.<\/p>\n<p>Greater parental difficulty in supporting their children in respecting homework deadlines and understanding teachers\u2019 instructions about homework, as well as an overall parental feeling of powerlessness in understanding how they could support their children\u2019s learning, predicted lower parents\u2019 and children\u2019s efficacy beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, higher parents\u2019 and children\u2019s beliefs in understanding others\u2019 needs (empathic self-efficacy), handling anger and sadness in challenging situations, and expressing positive emotions (regulatory emotional self-efficacy) were associated with higher parents\u2019 and children\u2019s efficacy beliefs toward online education, as well as with youth\u2019s autonomy toward online education.<\/p>\n<p>Parents\u2019 hostile rumination (e.g., \u201cI will always remember the injustices I have suffered\u201d) and irritability (e.g., \u201cI often feel like a powder keg ready to explode\u201d) were associated with lower parents\u2019 self-efficacy and children\u2019s autonomy toward online education.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cFacilitating family-school communications in the time of COVID-19 might decrease parents\u2019 sense of powerlessness when supporting their children\u2019s learning development.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Children\u2019s negative emotions (e.g., anger and sadness), low effortful control (e.g., the ability to inhibit an action when there is a strong tendency to perform it), and higher problematic behaviors (e.g., aggressive behaviors, anxiety and symptoms of depression) before the COVID-19 pandemic were also associated with lower parents\u2019 and children\u2019s efficacy beliefs toward online education.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, Bandura\u2019s self-efficacy theory supports the importance of taking into account how well both parents and their children believe they are capable of handling challenges associated with online education. Our preliminary findings show a correlation between these beliefs and developmental outcomes for Italian children during the difficult months of the lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>Facilitating family-school communication in the time of COVID-19 might decrease parents\u2019 sense of powerlessness when supporting their children\u2019s learning development. It could also increase their sense of efficacy around the challenges typically associated with online education.<\/p>\n<p>If parents and teachers know which parents\u2019 and children\u2019s characteristics are associated with better child outcomes, they might be able to think more effectively about how to manage their own and their children\u2019s behaviors to maximize the chances of success for the children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the likelihood that millions of children around the world will be alienated from school and at risk for academic failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":15587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5769,438],"tags":[5669,267,6],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15586"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21598,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586\/revisions\/21598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}