School Modality Options, COVID Concerns, and Parents' Stress

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Public Health
• Sociology

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly heightened parental stress, exacerbated by the demands of home-based education.
• The controversial decision to reopen schools in person in fall 2020 failed to alleviate parental stress.
• A stress process perspective suggests that parental stress related to school modality depended on individual COVID-19 concerns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between school modality, parental COVID-19 concerns, and parental stress during the fall 2020 school semester.
• To understand why school reopening did not improve the mental health of parents in the United States.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of survey data collected in November 2020.
• Examining the congruence between parents' concerns about COVID-19 and their children's school learning modalities (in-person vs. virtual).

Main Results:

• A mismatch between parental COVID-19 concerns and their children's school modality was linked to increased parental stress.
• Parents without COVID-19 concerns experienced the least stress with in-person learning and the most with virtual learning.
• Parents with COVID-19 concerns showed the inverse pattern, with virtual learning associated with lower stress.

Conclusions:

• The lack of alignment between school reopening policies and parental concerns about COVID-19 contributed to persistent parental stress.
• In-person learning was frequently associated with higher stress levels for parents concerned about COVID-19, explaining the limited mental health improvements post-reopening.