A Family Affair: Examining Perceived Parental Stress Levels and Involvement In Their Child’s Education During In-Person, Hybrid, and Remote Learning

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic permanently altered the educational landscape, forcing most schools to close down and leaving children to attend their classes from a remote environment inside their homes. Parental involvement during young learners’ education is a well-studied educational psychology topic, but the research has yet to fully understand the role that parents play in the different types of learning that children experienced this past year: remote learning, hybrid learning, and in-person learning. Research indicates that perceived parental involvement is higher for parents whose children are home-schooled versus enrolled in traditional schooling, suggesting a difference in parental involvement based on external factors. This paper explores how parents of children aged seven to ten report their own stress levels and involvement in their child’s education. We hypothesized that parents with children in remote learning will exhibit higher levels of perceived parental involvement and perceived stress. To investigate this research question, we administered a self-report survey to parents in which they answered questions about different aspects of their involvement as well as their stress levels in recent weeks. In a sample of Qualtrics participants, we found that parental involvement and stress does not significantly change depending on the type of learning their child is enrolled in. However, there are significant, positive correlations between stress and three parental involvement measures: role construction, home involvement, and child outcomes. Possible explanations for the parental involvement and stress findings between groups of parents and future directions for research are discussed.