Distance Learning Effects Among Italian Children and Parents During COVID-19 Related School Lockdown

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Italian primary school children's learning: A systematic review through a psycho-social lens

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected many areas and contexts of today's society, including school and family. Several studies focused on the worldwide effects of school closures on students' learning outcomes, context, and well-being. However, the data emerging from these studies are often inconsistent and fragmentary, highlighting the need of a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon. This need is especially urgent for the countries with the most severe school closure, like Italy. This systematic review aims to collect the opinions of parents, teachers, and students on: other dimensions of Italian primary school students affected by school closures, beyond academic performance; hypothetical agreement between the opinions of parents, teachers, and students regarding the different effects of school closures on Italian primary school students; possible differences between the effects of school closures on Italian primary school students and the students in other countries. Our search was conducted using PRISMA 2020 guidelines on Web of Science, Pubmed, Scopus, and EBSCOHost. The results obtained from 34 articles revealed a strong concern on the part of all stakeholders involved in learning during the pandemic, with evident negative effects for Italian school students. The constraint on distance learning led to a drastic change in everyone's routine, and a negative emotional change on the part of young students. Parents and teachers generally considered distance learning to be ineffective for the education of their children and students; they encountered technical-practical difficulties in the use of electronic devices for participation in school activities; overall learning deficits on the part of students, especially in mathematics, as confirmed by INVALSI results were also found. The investigation reveals a condition of shared emotional and academic performance difficulty, and a further challenging circumstance for students previously at risk of marginalization. Further research in this field is paramount to identify new and adequate recovery strategies.

Home-schooling and caring for children during the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK: emotional states, systems of support and coping strategies in working mothers

Introduction

We examined the experience of the intensification of home-schooling and/or childcare in working mothers in the United Kingdom during the first national COVID-19 lockdown. Our focus was on understanding how mothers dealt with this challenging period both emotionally and practically.

Methods

Eligible mothers (n = 47; Mage  =  39.6) participated in an anonymous online survey of openended questions.

Results

Thematic analysis of responses showed that mothers found home-schooling and/or childcare to be challenging. This was particularly notable in situations where support from partners, schools, and workplaces was limited. For single working mothers, the absence of support resources was especially impactful. Mothers often felt overly stressed trying to balance work and family responsibilities, guilty for not meeting their child's needs, and were worried over their child's well-being and academic progress and over increasing work demands. Common strategies mothers used to cope with the challenges of home-schooling and/or childcare included adopting a positive outlook, implementing flexible family structures, increasing family connectedness, and negotiating alternative partnership models.

Discussion

The intensification of home-schooling and/or childcare during the lockdown in the United Kingdom negatively affected maternal well-being, particularly due to limited support. These findings underscore the importance of prioritizing maternal wellbeing in post-pandemic recovery efforts. Additionally, they highlight the social dimension of maternal wellbeing and suggest a comprehensive approach to support it that includes both timely access to intervention for mental health but also implementing family-friendly work policies and offering support with childcare and children's learning as essential measures.

Parent-Report Sleep Disturbances and Everyday Executive Functioning Difficulties in Children with Tourette Syndrome

There is an increasing need to identify and treat sleep disturbances in Tourette syndrome (TS), a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by tics. This study explored sleep, tics, and executive functioning in children with TS (n=136) and neurotypical controls (n=101) through parent-report scales and open-ended questions. 85% of children with TS scored in the clinical range for a sleep disorder. Higher tic severity predicted increased sleep disturbances and executive difficulties. Qualitative insights indicated a bidirectional link between sleep and tics, which warrants consideration in clinical settings. Further research is needed to explore causal links.

Parental Perception of Remote Education in Pandemic: An Analysis Based on Children's Cognitive Performance

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed patterns of human interaction, including in the educational sector, which was forced to transform relationships among students, families, and the academic community. The present study sought to establish the interrelationships between performance on cognitive tests during the preschool stage and the perceptions of parents about remote education in school children during the pandemic. The study included 100 preschool children from socially vulnerable sectors who underwent remote and distance learning in 2020 and 2021. The reliability of the applied questionnaire was determined through a confirmatory factor analysis. A structural equation model was constructed to determine the perceptions of parents about remote education based on cognitive performance during the preschool stage. The model fit yielded favorable results for predictive variables (χ2 = 7.734, DF = 9 [p = 0.561], the comparative goodness-of-fit index [CFI] = 1.000, root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.000, standardized mean square residual [SRMR] = 0.069), and executive function (χ2 = 3.711, DF = 5 [p > 0.592], CFI = 1.000, RMSEA = 0.000, SRMR = 0.039) as latent variables that affected parents' perceptions. These results indicate that parents' perceptions of remote education are mediated by predictive aspects of learning and executive function during the preschool stage.

Online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic: How university students' perceptions, engagement, and performance are related to their personal characteristics

University students faced unexpected challenges in online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings from early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic and before show that online learning experiences may vary from student to student and depend on several personal characteristics. However, the relative importance of different students' personal characteristics for their online learning experiences at later phases of the Covid-19 pandemic is still unclear. This cross-sectional, correlational study investigates how personal characteristics of university students are related to five dimensions of online learning perception and to their engagement and performance in online courses. In an online survey, 413 students from German universities provided full information on their online learning experiences and personal characteristics in terms of demographic information, Big Five personality traits, self-regulation skills, three facets of self-efficacy, and two types of state anxiety. Results of multiple regression analyses show that students' age was significantly positively related to all online learning perceptions and engagement in online courses. Our findings also confirm that self-regulation skills and academic and digital media self-efficacy are important factors in various online learning experiences. In contrast, students' personality traits and state anxiety were less important for most online learning experiences. Noteworthy, several bivariate associations between personal characteristics and online learning experiences are not reflected in the multiple regression model. This underscores the need to consider relevant variables simultaneously to evaluate their relative importance and to identify key personal characteristics. Overall, our results show valuable starting points for theory development and educational interventions.

Parenting stress in autism: do children's characteristics still count more than stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience higher levels of stress than parents of typically-developing (TD) children, due to differences in their children's emotional functioning. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the cognitive and practical demands on vulnerable populations and their families. The aim of this study was to examine parenting stress levels in parents of children ASD and TD children, considering the children's emotional functioning (i.e., anxiety and cognitive emotion regulation strategies), and stressful life events deriving from the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved 64 parent-child dyads comprising children from 7 to 16 years old, divided into two groups: 32 (26 M) children and adolescents with ASD but no intellectual disability, and 32 (26 M) with typical development. Our results show that parents of children with ASD reported higher levels of stress, but factors relating to the child and the context had a different influence on parenting stress in the ASD and TD groups. The higher level of parenting stress in the ASD group seemed to relate more to the children's emotional characteristics, while the TD group was more affected by the unpredictable stressful events prompted by COVID-19. Families' mental health should be considered a core aspect of supporting parents having to deal with both their child's emotional adjustment and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic for children with ADHD and/or ASD: a European multi-center study examining the role of executive function deficits and age

BACKGROUND

One of the COVID-19 pandemic consequences that has affected families the most is school lockdowns. Some studies have shown that distance learning has been especially challenging for families with a child with neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD or ASD. However, previous studies have not taken the heterogeneity of these disorders into account. The aim of the present study was therefore to investigate differences between families with a child with ADHD, ASD, or both conditions, and to examine the role of underlying deficits in executive functioning (EF) in both children and parents in relation to negative and positive effects of distance learning.

METHODS

Survey data assessing both negative and positive experiences of distance learning were collected from parents with a child aged 5-19 years in seven Western European countries: the UK, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, and Belgium. Altogether, the study included 1010 families with a child with ADHD and/or ASD and an equally large comparison group of families with a child without mental health problems. We included measures of three different types of negative effects (i.e., effects on the child, effects on the parent, and lack of support from school) and positive effects on the family.

RESULTS

Results confirmed that families with a child with ADHD, ASD or a combination of ADHD and ASD showed higher levels of both negative and positive effects of distance learning than the comparison group. However, few differences were found between the clinical groups. Group differences were more pronounced for older compared to younger children. Regarding the role of both ADHD/ASD diagnosis and EF deficits, primarily children's EF deficits contributed to high levels of negative effects. Parent EF deficits did not contribute significantly beyond the influence of child EF deficits. Families of children with ADHD/ASD without EF deficits experienced the highest levels of positive effects.

CONCLUSIONS

School closings during COVID-19 have a major impact on children with EF problems, including children with neurodevelopmental disorders. The present study emphasizes that schools should not focus primarily on whether a student has a neurodevelopmental disorder, but rather provide support based on the student's individual profile of underlying neuropsychological deficits.