To slow down the spread of the COVID-19 virus, schools around the world were closed in early 2020, transferring children’s scholastic activities to the homes and imposing a massive burden on parents and school-aged children. Using data of a 21-day diary study conducted between March and April 2020 in Germany, this work examined whether homeschooling (and parents’ involvement therein) was associated with negative parent-child interactions and affective well-being of both, parents and children, over and above the effect of daily stressors. On days when children were working on school tasks, parents (N = 562) reported more negative parent-child interactions as well as lower parental and child positive affect and higher child negative affect, but not higher parental negative affect. Moreover, days when parents were more heavily involved in learning (i.e., when children worked less independently on school tasks) were days with more negative parent-child interactions, lower parental and child positive affect, and higher parental and child negative affect. Negative parent-child interactions were also linked to lower affective well-being of parents and children, and partially accounted for the relation among daily stressors and affective well-being of parents and children. Furthermore, parent-child interactions generally were worse in families in which children worked on school tasks either very rarely or on approximately all days of the study. The present work illustrates the negative consequences of school closures on the parent-child dyad and highlights the need for measures to better support school-aged children and their parents in the learning process at home.
Parental Flow and Positive Emotions: Optimal Experiences in Parent–Child Interactions and Parents’ Well-Being
