Parents in Pandemic: parents’ perceptions of risks and psychological, relational, and pedagogical needs in childhood during the COVID-19 emergency in Italy.

Abstract

The global spread of the SARS COV-2 virus and the related Coronavirus Disease-19 (Covid-19) has forced the entire planet to suddenly adopt important safety standards and reorganize social reality. The present research investigates the perception of psychological, relational, and pedagogical risks and needs in the developmental age (3-18 years) by the parents of different Italian regions during the quarantine period. Specifically, we examined the opinions of parents regarding the rules of social distancing and the continuous and massive use of new technologies for distance learning (DL). The results showed that Italian parents have two main concerns: on the one hand, the emergency in terms of health and health-related aspects; on the other, the teaching, training, and educational trajectories of children. They manifested mistrust and scepticism towards institutions and the school world, in terms of both management competence and structural and infrastructural capacity; aspects perceived as concerns also for Phase 2 and 3 of the epidemic curve.