Who Is Watching the Children? A Quantitative Analysis of Strategies for Reconciling Work and Parenting during Lockdown in Northern Italy

(1) Background: In their efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, most countries closed schools and kindergartens. To date, little is known about the strategies of working families reconciling work and parenting during repeated lockdown situations. (2) Methods: We performed a quantitative survey o...

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Autores principales:	Barbara Plagg, Heidi Flarer, Andreas Conca, Christian J. Wiedermann, Adolf Engl, Giuliano Piccoliori, Sigrid Mairhofer, Verena Barbieri, Klaus Eisendle
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	COVID-19 lockdown family health public health health inequities education Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e1a097e9cf97474fb0340b2769907dd3
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e1a097e9cf97474fb0340b2769907dd32021-11-11T16:19:31ZWho Is Watching the Children? A Quantitative Analysis of Strategies for Reconciling Work and Parenting during Lockdown in Northern Italy10.3390/ijerph1821111741660-46011661-7827https://doaj.org/article/e1a097e9cf97474fb0340b2769907dd32021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11174https://doaj.org/toc/1661-7827https://doaj.org/toc/1660-4601(1) Background: In their efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, most countries closed schools and kindergartens. To date, little is known about the strategies of working families reconciling work and parenting during repeated lockdown situations. (2) Methods: We performed a quantitative survey of working parents in Italy during a week of ‘hard lockdown’ in February/March 2021. (3) Results: 3725 voluntary adult participants from different households responded. Though officially not allowed, 53.4% of all participants sought help from people outside the nuclear family to bridge the situation, mostly the grandparents (79%; n = 1855). Overall, parental coping strategies included alternating working–childcare-turns with their partner (35%, n = 1316), working early in the morning or during nighttime (23%; n = 850), or leaving the children unattended (25%, n = 929). (4) Conclusions: The closure of schools/kindergartens forcefully shifts the responsibility for childcare onto the nuclear family, where new strategies arose, including health-damaging models of alternating work–childcare-shifts, ‘illegal’ involvement of third parties from outside the nuclear family, as well as neglect of age-related childcare. Our findings underline that working families need additional support strategies during repeated closure of childcare institutions to be able to reduce contact and minimize secondary damage.Barbara PlaggHeidi FlarerAndreas ConcaChristian J. WiedermannAdolf EnglGiuliano PiccolioriSigrid MairhoferVerena BarbieriKlaus EisendleMDPI AGarticleCOVID-19lockdownfamily healthpublic healthhealth inequitieseducationMedicineRENInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 11174, p 11174 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	COVID-19 lockdown family health public health health inequities education Medicine R
spellingShingle	COVID-19 lockdown family health public health health inequities education Medicine R Barbara Plagg Heidi Flarer Andreas Conca Christian J. Wiedermann Adolf Engl Giuliano Piccoliori Sigrid Mairhofer Verena Barbieri Klaus Eisendle Who Is Watching the Children? A Quantitative Analysis of Strategies for Reconciling Work and Parenting during Lockdown in Northern Italy
description	(1) Background: In their efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, most countries closed schools and kindergartens. To date, little is known about the strategies of working families reconciling work and parenting during repeated lockdown situations. (2) Methods: We performed a quantitative survey of working parents in Italy during a week of ‘hard lockdown’ in February/March 2021. (3) Results: 3725 voluntary adult participants from different households responded. Though officially not allowed, 53.4% of all participants sought help from people outside the nuclear family to bridge the situation, mostly the grandparents (79%; n = 1855). Overall, parental coping strategies included alternating working–childcare-turns with their partner (35%, n = 1316), working early in the morning or during nighttime (23%; n = 850), or leaving the children unattended (25%, n = 929). (4) Conclusions: The closure of schools/kindergartens forcefully shifts the responsibility for childcare onto the nuclear family, where new strategies arose, including health-damaging models of alternating work–childcare-shifts, ‘illegal’ involvement of third parties from outside the nuclear family, as well as neglect of age-related childcare. Our findings underline that working families need additional support strategies during repeated closure of childcare institutions to be able to reduce contact and minimize secondary damage.
format	article
author	Barbara Plagg Heidi Flarer Andreas Conca Christian J. Wiedermann Adolf Engl Giuliano Piccoliori Sigrid Mairhofer Verena Barbieri Klaus Eisendle
author_facet	Barbara Plagg Heidi Flarer Andreas Conca Christian J. Wiedermann Adolf Engl Giuliano Piccoliori Sigrid Mairhofer Verena Barbieri Klaus Eisendle
author_sort	Barbara Plagg
title	Who Is Watching the Children? A Quantitative Analysis of Strategies for Reconciling Work and Parenting during Lockdown in Northern Italy
title_short	Who Is Watching the Children? A Quantitative Analysis of Strategies for Reconciling Work and Parenting during Lockdown in Northern Italy
title_full	Who Is Watching the Children? A Quantitative Analysis of Strategies for Reconciling Work and Parenting during Lockdown in Northern Italy
title_fullStr	Who Is Watching the Children? A Quantitative Analysis of Strategies for Reconciling Work and Parenting during Lockdown in Northern Italy
title_full_unstemmed	Who Is Watching the Children? A Quantitative Analysis of Strategies for Reconciling Work and Parenting during Lockdown in Northern Italy
title_sort	who is watching the children? a quantitative analysis of strategies for reconciling work and parenting during lockdown in northern italy
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/e1a097e9cf97474fb0340b2769907dd3
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Who Is Watching the Children? A Quantitative Analysis of Strategies for Reconciling Work and Parenting during Lockdown in Northern Italy

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