Children ‘under lockdown’: voices, experiences, and resources during and after the COVID-19 emergency. Insights from a survey with children and families in the Lombardy region of Italy

Abstract

The article presents preliminary findings from a family survey about children's experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown, which was administered through the pediatric network SICuPP (Italian Society of Primary Care Pediatricians-Lombardy) in Northern Italy. The study involved 3443 parents with children aged from 1 to 5 years and from 6 to 10 years living in Lombardy region, the earliest and most severely affected by the COVID-19 emergency. All participants completed an online questionnaire and provided informed consent. Respondents generally displayed confidence and a sense of self-efficacy in relation to how they had coped with the COVID-19 emergency, despite the many difficulties encountered during the lockdown. They reported having observed some unexpected improvements and resources (e.g. parent/child and sibling relationships, adaptiveness and autonomy on the part of children). Parent-to-parent solidarity was commonly reported, although a small percentage of parents had experienced a greater sense of isolation and anxiety. Finally, the study indicated 'key areas of vulnerability' (concerning, for example, eating, rules, sleeping, use of technological devices, fears …) that should be monitored in future by strengthening the territorial network linking families, educational services, and health services.

Distance learning, technological devices, lifestyle and behavior of children and their family during the COVID-19 lockdown in Lombardy: a survey

“…On the other hand, the literature points out that the use of digital technology for social relationships deserve a continuous monitoring to prevent an excessive use of such devices [ 18 ]. This issue is also supported by data previously published on the same group of children that highlighted the parental concern of addiction to devices especially in younger children [ 13 ].…”

“…Data about daily life and emotion items were partially previously published [ 13 ] and the most interesting data are summarized in Table 1 .…”

Informal early childhood education: the influences of parents and home on young children's learning

“…Around one-third of children have not accessed remote learning at all during the pandemic (UNICEF 2020c). Children's access to formal education via remote learning has been dependent on their access to digital education and devices (Blundell et al 2020), exacerbating inequalities that existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (Barnett, Grafwallner, and Weisenfeld 2021;Gupta and Jawanda 2020;Mantovani et al 2021). Equally, Chamberlain et al (2020, 252) note that while 'online instruction is a valuable tool (it) cannot substitute, much less replace, a teacher', and it may be argued that this is especially the case for young children who have yet to develop a sense of themselves in relation to others and 'real world' experiences (Bailey and Bailenson 2017).…”

"And My Screen Wouldn't Share": Student-Teachers' Perceptions of ICT in Online Teaching Practice and Online Teaching

“…In relation to the covid-19 pandemic, there are relatively many studies that report on the experiences and perceptions of teacher educators and teachers. In addition, studies of the perceptions of learner's parents have begun to burgeon (e.g., Brom et al, 2020;Elgart, 2021;Mantovani et al, 2021). However, to our knowledge, there have only been two studies that concentrate on the perceptions of online teaching by student-teachers enrolled in teacher education programs.…”