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Maternal and Child Health Journal

20-11-2023 | COVID-19

Parent-Child Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey

Authors: Taryn W. Morrissey, Katherine Engel

Published in: Maternal and Child Health Journal

Abstract

Objectives

To examine how the time parents spent with their children changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Using nationally representative time-diary data from the American Time Use Survey, parents’ time spent in and location of enriching (direct) and secondary (supervisory) childcare among a sample with at one child under 6 years (N = 2,862) and 6–12 years of age (N = 3,595) from May 2020 to December 2021 were compared to January 2019 to March 2020.

Results

Parents’ time in secondary childcare at home increased substantially. Parents with children under age 6 increased their enriching childcare time, driven by mothers. Low-income parents with children aged 6–12 showed a decrease in enriching time with children, whereas higher-income parents with school-age children showed an increase.

Conclusions for Practice

Parents’ time in supervisory childcare increased substantially, and gender and income disparities in enriching time spent engaged with children grew. Examining parent-child time use patterns is important to understand the pandemic’s effects and can provide insight on how best to support children and families during the recovery.

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Respondents may be in both groups if they had children in each of these age categories.

This ATUS measure of secondary childcare has been found to be largely consistent with alternative measures of parental availability but not direct engagement (Stewart & Allard, 2015). Our two parent time use measures exclude parents’ time spent in physical care for children (e.g., feeding, bathing children). While this form of primary childcare constitutes a substantial amount of time spent with young children, these activities are likely to have changed less during the pandemic relative to prior; we focused on changes in parents’ primary childcare in enriching time and secondary childcare time as a proxy for how children’s time directly engaged with adults may have shifted during the pandemic.

Based on categories used in prior research using the ATUS examining the effects of minimum wage policies (see Morrissey, 2023, Review of Economics of the Household: https://link.springer.com/article/https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-022-09638-2).

In additional analyses (results available upon request), we controlled for state-level data on monthly COVID-19 case rates and deaths to control for the severity of the pandemic; findings were substantively unchanged.

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Title: Parent-Child Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey
Authors: Taryn W. Morrissey
Katherine Engel
Publication date: 20-11-2023
Publisher: Springer US
Keyword: COVID-19
Published in: Maternal and Child Health Journal
Print ISSN: 1092-7875
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6628
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-023-03777-3

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Parent-Child Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey

Abstract

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions for Practice

Keynote Webinar | Spotlight on Diet and Diabetes

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions for Practice

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