Associations Between Parenting Stress and Children’s Academic Engagement When Schools Were Closed During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk and Protective Factors

Abstract

Abstract The present study investigated associations between parenting stress and children’s academic engagement when schools were closed in spring/ early summer 2020. We investigated four dimensions of children’s academic engagement, i.e., behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and agentic. Participants of this online survey study were 78 families (75 mothers and 54 fathers), recruited in the United States from advertisements on Facebook in May 2020. Children were, on average, 11.05 years old (SD=3.73). Out of the total sample, 46 parents also consented for their child to participate in the study. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find evidence for direct associations between parenting stress and children’s academic engagement. However, our findings suggest that the associations between parenting stress and children’s academic engagement is moderated by children’s interest in at-home learning activities and the length of homeschooling. Recommendations for future research on the effects of the pandemic on children’s learning are discussed.