Impacts on Parents and Children

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Key messages:

• In June, Statistics Canada conducted a crowdsource survey - Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians – Parenting during the Pandemic – providing valuable information on the experience of parents and children.
• Since the pandemic, many parents have reported being very or extremely concerned about their children and their families – particularly the ability to balance child care, school, and work – rates were higher among parents with disabled children.
• Few parents used child care during the early part of the pandemic – Among those reporting that their children would resume child care, the majority report they require child care in order to work
• Ready for school – Children of parents with a Bachelor's degree or higher were more likely to be engaged in academic activities 3 or more times a week compared to parents with a high school degree (88% vs 67%).

Since the pandemic, many parents have reported being very or extremely concerned about their children and their families – particularly the ability to balance child care, school, and work

Concerns for their children:

Concerns about balancing child care, schooling, and work highest among those with school aged children aged 4 to 11…

Concerns for their families:

Few parents were using child care during COVID – among those who did, almost half had different arrangements and fees

Use of any child care as reported by parents of children aged 0-14, crowdsource survey Canada, June 2020

Among parents who were using child care during the pandemic 46% had different and 35% had the same arrangement and fees.

Reflecting concerns about balancing work and child care, a majority of families require child care in order to work

Preschoolers

• Yes 56%
• No 24%

Young School Age (4-11)

• Yes 27%
• No 30%

When asked why they will not send their children to child care…

Among the one in three participants who said their children would resume attending 88% said that they required child care in order to work

Sedentary activity and screen time increases for Canadian children and youth

Prior to COVID, the most recent statistics from the Canadian Health Measures Survey indicate that:

• 46% of children and 30% of youth were meeting the current physical activity recommendation.
• 76% of children and 28% of youth were meeting the current screen time recommendation.

Percentage of Canadian children and youth meeting current physical activity and screen time recommendations, by sex.

What are children doing during the pandemic? Most parents reported that their children were participating in screen time daily or almost every day

Over half of parents (54%) reported that they were very of extremely concerned about the amount of screen time their children were engaging in.

Getting ready for school - While most children were engaged in academic activities, differences exist by parents' education level

Parental education has been shown to be positively correlated with their children's academic performance… this remains true during COVID.

• While 77% of parents reported that their children engaged in academic activities 3 times per week or more, differences exist by level of education…
  • 80% among parents with a Bachelor's degree compared with 67% of participants with a high school diploma or less.
• Parents with a high school education or less were almost three times more likely than parents with a Bachelor's degree to report their children never engaged in academic activities (8% vs 3%).

Frequency of children's participation in structured academic activities, by parental educational attainment

As some schools move to online learning options, differential access to the internet and devices may further disadvantage children in low income households

While only 1.2% of Canadian households with children do not have access to the internet at home, the rate is higher among low income households in (4.2%) compared with high income households (0.2%).

Percentage of households with children under age 18 who have no home internet

Low income households are also likely to have less than one device for each household member (63%) compared to 56.2% among high income households.

Percentage of households with children under age 18 who have less than one internet-enabled device per household member

Families of children with disabilities have higher rates of concern about the impacts of COVID – especially about their children's health and education

A higher proportion of parents of children with disabilities are very or extremely concerned about their children's amount of screen time, loneliness or isolation, general mental health, school year and academic success.

Crowdsourcing participants' concerns for their children aged 0 to 14 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, by presence of children with disabilities at home

Looking forward

Impacts of COVID on parents and children are likely to be dramatic in several areas:

• Parental ability to manage work, school, and child care demands particularly for young children and children with disabilities.
• Parental concerns about how children are spsending their time with increases in screen time, sedentary activity, and social isolation and few spending time in art, games, and the learning of new skills.
• Despite this, the majority of children are reported as being engaged in reading and other academic activities during COVID.
• Children living in families of socio-economic risk are more disadvantaged in accessing needed resources during COVID. Access to technology as a tool for remote learning is but one example.
• Parental and child well-being including physical and mental health, and academic and economic success will be key markers for future recovery.