An Observational Study of Demographic Variables and Parenting Stress, the Extent of Children’s Screen Addiction and its Impact on Parenting Stress During the Period of Covid-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Many parents experience stress specifically related to parenting. Parenting duties have increased significantly as Children are at home entire day. It has been found that children staying at home due to lockdown spend more time in front of TV screens, mobile phones and internet which can lead to psycho-social problems. This further increases parental stress. The purpose of this study was to asses parenting stress, and to understand the components responsible and incidence of screen addiction in children during lockdown. Methods: The study was designed as cross-sectional observational study. After the ethical approval, the samples were collected online using google forms. The data was collected between September to December 2021. The parents of children under 18 years of age were selected for the study. Parent stress scale, Children’s screen addiction test was used for determining parental stress and screen use respectively. Result: 60.5% were male and 39.5% were female. 90.6% participants were Hindu, 6.04% were Muslim, rest 3.3% were others. 93.4 % were married, 3.3% were divorced, and 2.7 % had widowed status. For single child average parenting stress score was 58.31, for 2, 3, and 4/4+ was 59.21, 66.05 and 78.9 respectively. 45.60% (N=83) participants had high levels and 54.40 % had low parental stress. There was 43.3% rise in parental stress during pandemic. On comparative analysis of Parental stress before and during lockdown, 12.63% reported decrease, 15.38% reported no change, and 71.97% reported increase in parental stress. 14.8% children had problematic use of screen use and 76.37% (N=139) had severe problem of screen use. Conclusion: We are currently living in a difficult time, where a global pandemic has led to detrimental changes for almost all aspects of daily living. Many of these changes are consistent with the risk factors for parental stress, which is particularly troubling as parents. It is important that we recognize parenting stress as a phenomenon that is possible, and even probable, during periods of pandemic.