Children, media and parenting in the COVID-19 pandemic (Pandemic parenting)
About the project
The pandemic has changed childhood to digital by default. Given changes in domestic media practices, where everything happens through digital platforms, this international comparative research project seeks to understand how parents and caregivers regulate media, understand advice about media, and articulate what it means to create the conditions for a good childhood in relation to media practices in the home.
Project aims
- understand changes in children’s media practices in response to the pandemic as described by parents/caregivers
- understand what parents/caregivers imagine for future media practices in the home
- understand changes in ideas around digital media in relation to the regulation of media practices in the home
Project design
This qualitative inquiry is being conducted in seven countries: Australia, China, UK, US, South Korea, Canada and Colombia. 20 participants per country are being recruited and data generated by the following methods:
- online surveys x 140 – collecting contextual data to inform analysis of interview data
- 45-minute audio-recorded interviews x 140 (20 x 7 countries) – to be transcribed and thematically analysed
- visual data/images x 140 (20 x 7 countries) – to be curated into an image quilt and a virtual exhibition space threaded with excerpts from interview data
Additional Investigators
- Dr Becky Coles, Deakin University, Australia
- Associate Professor Natalie Coulter, York University, Canada
- Dr Diana García Gómez, George Mason University, United States
- Dr Amie Kim, Gyeongin National University of Education, South Korea
- Ju Lim, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
- Maureen Mauk, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
- Lindsay Sheppard, York University, Canada
- Jess Williams, Deakin University, Australia
Project outcome
Children, Media, and Pandemic Parenting: Family Life in Uncertain Times
This book examines changes in families’ rules and routines connected with media during the pandemic and shifts in parents’ understanding of children’s media use.
Drawing on interviews with 130 parents at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the book explores specific cultural contexts across seven countries: Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, South Korea, United Kingdom, and United States.
