During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents have been faced with challenging circumstances to balance work, household, care of children and support of distance learning for school-age children without help from their regular support systems such as schools, childcare, and often other family members as well.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents have been faced with challenging circumstances to balance work, household, care of children and support of distance learning for school-age children without help from their regular support systems such as schools, childcare, and often other family members as well. A new longitudinal study in Germany examined day-to-day parenting behavior during the restrictions and closures caused by the pandemic from the end of March until the end of April 2020. Research showed that autonomy-supportive parenting (offering meaningful choices when possible) contributed to positive well-being for both children and parents.
The findings were published in a Child Development article written by researchers at DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education and the Center for Research on Individual and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk (IDeA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
“We explored whether or not autonomy-supportive parental behavior would facilitate adaptation and better child well-being. We also explored whether such parenting behavior helps to create a positive emotional climate that benefits parents as well as children,” said Andreas B. Neubauer, postdoctoral research scientist at DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education. “Findings suggest autonomy-supportive parenting behavior is positively associated both with better child well-being and higher parental need fulfillment.” According to the authors, such parenting behavior requires parental energy and vitality but also reciprocally contributes to it.
Read more at Society for Research in Child Development
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