The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on parental permissivity: A cross-sectional study

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21527/2176-7114.2024.48.14531

Keywords:

children, COVID-19, screen time, physical activity, child development

Abstract

This cross-sectional study sought to uncover how the pandemic impacted parental permissiveness in the routine activities of Brazilian children. The 466 parents of children aged between 3 and 10 years answered a questionnaire about the frequency with which they allowed their children to use electronic devices and engage in social activities after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The independent variables were the child's age and gender, family income, the number of people contributing to income, the form of employment during the pandemic, whether the respondent was responsible for household tasks and if these affected their routine, and who looked after the child when they needed to leave home. The distribution assessment of independent variables (categorical) according to the 3 degrees of the dependent variable (more, less, the same), and parental permission (ordinal categorical), was performed by the Chi-square test. After the onset of the pandemic, parents allowed fewer outdoor play/physical activities in public places (409 - 87.76%) and visits to friends' and relatives' houses (421 - 90.34%); and increased the frequency of permitting the use of electronic devices for entertainment (358 -76.8%). The frequency of taking children to markets, shops, malls, and similar did not have a significant change (p=0.1494). The current study pointed out significant changes in parental permissiveness due to the isolation required by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Published

2024-04-05

How to Cite

Steinbach, M., Kammer, P. V., da Silva, C. A., Santos, K. S., de Lima, V. A. S., Massignan, C. ., & Bolan, M. da S. (2024). The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on parental permissivity: A cross-sectional study. Context and Health Journal, 24(48), e14531. https://doi.org/10.21527/2176-7114.2024.48.14531

Issue

Section

ORIGINAL ARTICLE