Perceived Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Parents and Caregivers with Young Children: Results of a Mixed-Methods Canadian Survey

Across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting public health measures significantly impacted the lives of families with young children. The emerging tensions surrounding the loss of social interactions for young children, 0-8 years, during the pandemic, as evident in recent literature, have sparked our interest. To explore this from a Canada-wide perspective, we delved into a subset of data from a national mixed methods survey conducted in 2021, examining the impact and projected psychological and social concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic. This subset included responses from 688 participants who identified as primary daily caregivers of children aged 0-8 years. The study employed descriptive statistics and thematic analysis to fill an evidence gap around the possible effects of the pandemic on caregivers' concerns for their child's social and emotional development. Findings revealed that parents/caregivers ranked their child's social and emotional development as their highest concern during and after the pandemic; connecting it to the loss or lack of socialization, increases in screen time, and the lack of participation in early years education and community programs. Moving forward from the pandemic, this study's results help us understand where focused attention may be needed to support young children's development and consider areas where parents stress may remain high post-pandemic, to inform service design and policy direction.