The Association Between Child ADHD Symptoms and Changes in Parental Involvement in Kindergarten Children’s Learning During COVID-19

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic 2019 (COVID-19) changed the context of schooling for both parents and their children. Learning at home presents new challenges for parents of young children and particularly for parents of children with behavior difficulties, such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. The current study examined changes to parent and child behavior due to COVID-19 among 4- and 5-year-old children and their parents. Changes in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and levels of parental involvement in children’s learning were examined. ADHD symptoms were also examined as a moderator of changes in parent involvement. Data were collected prior to COVID-19 and several months after school closures. Results indicated that parents’ ratings of their children’s ADHD symptoms increased from prior to COVID-19 to during COVID-19. There were few changes to parents’ educational involvement; however, parents’ beliefs about their responsibility to be involved in their children’s learning changed differentially according to child gender.

Keywords:

• ADHD
• COVID-19
• parent involvement
• kindergarten

DISCLOSURE

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Moira Wendel

Moira J. Wendel, BA, is a PhD student of school psychology at Northern Illinois University. Her research interests include attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and social–emotional learning.

Tessa Ritchie

Tessa Ritchie, MSc, is currently a second-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Ottawa. She holds a master’s degree in school and applied child psychology from the University of Calgary. Tessa’s research interests include the early social and cognitive development of children with ADHD and the contextual factors that help support positive outcomes for children with early ADHD symptomatology.

Maria A. Rogers

Dr. Maria Rogers, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Rogers holds a PhD in school and clinical child psychology from the University of Toronto and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and McGill University. Dr. Rogers has broad interests in the social–emotional and academic development of youth with ADHD across the childhood and adolescent period. She is particularly interested in how parents and teachers interact with children with ADHD regarding learning and school-related issues. Dr. Rogers is also a registered psychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario and the Ordre des psychologues du Québec and has worked clinically with children, teachers, and families in several school boards, clinics, and hospitals in Ontario and Québec.

Julia A. Ogg

Julia Ogg, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Northern Illinois University. Her research interests include understanding how parent–child and teacher–child relationships relate to the early development of self-regulatory and externalizing behaviors.

Alecia M. Santuzzi

Alecia M. Santuzzi, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology in the Social–Industrial/Organizational Psychology area and director of research methodology services at Northern Illinois University. She has been conducting and publishing research on disability in the workplace, with an emphasis on improving the occupational health and well-being for workers with disabilities. She also serves as an expert in methodology and data analysis for complex data structures.

Elizabeth C. Shelleby

Elizabeth C. Shelleby’s, PhD, research is informed by a developmental psychopathology perspective and focuses on the development of child disruptive behavior problems, preventive interventions for at-risk populations, parenting practices, early child emotion regulation, and the influence of contextual stressors on child mental health. Her work on preventive interventions explores intervention moderators and mechanisms of change. One line of inquiry she has pursued in the area of contextual stressors focuses on the intersection between family economic stress and children’s behavioral development.

Kellie Menter

Kellie Menter, MA, is currently a second-year doctoral student in the School Psychology Program at Northern Illinois University. She holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of Central Florida. Kellie’s research interests include teachers’ experience of burnout and the individual and organizational factors that are associated with its development.