OPUS (2021) 12:1
These role strains are often exacerbated if parents lack adequate resources and/or social support (Friedman, 2003; Lois, 2006). Many parents, even former school teachers who end up in a homeschooling role, feel a sense of inadequacy or insecurity surrounding their abilities to teach, causing more stress and exhaustion (Brissie et al., 1988; Friedman, 2003; Lois, 2006; Papastylianou et al., 2009). This sense of inadequacy is often exacerbated due to parents’ deep emotional commitment to the children, especially if their child lacks motivation or is failing to meet expectations (Baker, 2019; Lois, 2006). Most research on homeschooling has focused on parents who made the decision to transition to homeschooling due to religious, moral or protective reasons; less is understood about parents who are forced to take on a similar role (Baker, 2019). The COVID-19 outbreak led many parents to take on homeschooling roles due to the closing of schools and transition to remote learning (“COVID-19 Educational Disruption,” 2020). While children continued to follow curricula set by their teachers at school, young children needed their parents to aid them in the unfamiliar online learning format. This transition not only altered children’s everyday lives, but also family dynamics as a whole, and especially the role of parents at home (Brown et al., 2020). Research shows that parents in the U.S. reported to be more stressed during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with their non-parent counterparts and have attributed their main stressors to their parenting roles and transition to online learning (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020). Over the course of the pandemic, parents have reported having less emotional support and higher levels of stress due to financial struggles and health concerns leading to increased parental burnout (Center for Translational Neuroscience, 2020). Although, to date, there has been very little research surrounding the pandemic and its mental health implications, many parents have expressed this sense of stress and burnout through mediums like social media and popular journals. For example, Grose (2020) conducted an interview for The New York Times with Paige Posladek, a pregnant woman and mother of two children who are two and four years old. Posladek explained a sense of stagnancy and a failure to move forward because she feels overwhelmed and does not have time for herself. One of the few studies addressing parental burnout during COVID-19 (Mousavi, 2020) found that other parents are experiencing higher levels of parental burnout citing new stressors such as uncertainty, lack of control, and helplessness, confirming anecdotal evidence from parents with young children. Current Study Parental burnout is a feeling of extreme exhaustion due to high levels of stress and a mismatch between responsibilities and available resources, which includes a sense of disconnection with parents’ family and/or children (Griffith, 2020; Mikolajczak et al., 2018; Roskam et al., 2017). Past research has found that parenting young children can be very rewarding, yet challenging 36 | Research
at times (Le Vigouroux et al. 2017; Mikolajczak et al., 2018), with additional difficulties on parents who homeschool their children (Baker, 2019). Research on the recent COVID-19 pandemic has begun to shed light on changing family routines and increased stress (“COVID-19 Educational Disruption”, 2020; Grose, 2020). However, little is known about the effect of a teaching role at home on burnout for parents who are forced to take on this role. Furthermore, minimal work has focused on the relation between COVID-19 and parental burnout levels. Thus, this study aimed to fill these gaps through the following research question: How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted burnout in parents with young children? Method Participants Ten parents of young children in New York City were interviewed (N = 10) via Zoom. Nine participants identified as cis-women, and one identified as cis-man. Most of them (N = 8) identified as White, whereas one participant identified as Hispanic or Latino and one participant identified as Black or African American. Parents’ ages ranged from 29 to 43 years old. All parents were married except for one who was divorced. All of them reported obtaining at least a Bachelor’s degree; four reported obtaining a professional or Master’s degree, and five parents reported obtaining a doctorate degree. The majority (N = 6) reported having one child and the remaining four parents reported having two children. Ten of the children were female and four were male; their ages ranged from 7 months to 10 years old (M = 3.26, SD = 2.62). Procedure In October and November of 2020, participants were interviewed by one of the authors via Zoom. The interview protocol was created based on findings in the extant literature; a trial interview was conducted to see which questions were relevant, and the interview questions were then revised accordingly. The interviews were semi-structured, including questions such as “In what ways did your child/children need more support or supervision for their schooling from home?” However, follow-up questions were also asked throughout the interviews for clarification. During the interviews, both the participants and the interviewers had their cameras on. All the interviews were conducted in English, and they were approximately 30-35 minutes long. Transcription and Coding All interviews were transcribed using Trint software. The coding scheme emerged from the data based on a grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). To establish reliability, each researcher coded the same interview, compared codes, and clarified the discrepancies. Once reliability was achieved, each transcript was read by one of the researchers twice and coded for main themes and specific codes that emerged from the data. The interviews were coded at the turn level, such that researchers
