The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released a year one report “Caregiving in the Context of COVID-19.” Looking at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, over two years ago, and how families and children have been affected in many ways. Closing schools and community resources made an impact on childcare routines. Changes to work life and government support systems also impacted how parents were able to provide for their families.
HOPE, Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA), AAP, and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) asked 9,000 parents about their experiences since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. YouGov.com recruited the 9,000 parents to take the survey. This was broken up into three groups of 3,000 parents that answered questions about employment, childcare, education, and other topics in November 2020, March 2021, and June 2021.
The study team worked with Magnolia Detroit Consulting to summarize the trends in parent responses. The report covers key takeaways looking at the impact of support services, violence in the home (such as intimate partner violence or harsh discipline), and parent’s hardest and most helpful experiences. In this report, the study team also shared how this survey impacts future practice. Using these results, doctors and home visitors can identify what may be working well for families in their care to reach solutions together. Continuing the supports that helped families who took this survey would support parents and children to manage future times of crisis. HOPE and our partners will keep looking into this data to understand the specific services and supports that helped families the most.
Read the summary report on the AAP website, and visit the Family Snapshots site for more information about the parent survey and new reports about key findings from the survey.
