Introduction
Currently, the entire human society is facing unprecedented and unparallel restrictions, fear and anguish due to the havoc created by COVID-19. The pandemic of COVID-19 has been an unexpected, novel and threatening which is caused by a coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) which leads to a severe respiratory illness accompanied by the symptoms of cough, fever and difficulty in breathing (Li et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020; World Health Organization, 2020a). The unavailability of vaccine or medicine has made this pandemic to culminate in severe mass distress, uncertainty, fear and challenges to the health and well-being outcomes of children and adults (Jiao et al., 2020).
About three million confirmed (2, 626, 321) and death (181, 938) cases worldwide caused by COVID-19 are indicative of the gloomy picture created by it (World Health Organization, 2020). Among others, children of all age groups belonging to all societies have become the biggest victim of the current pandemic that may have profound effects on their life outcomes and well-being (United Nations Organization, 2020). Their life outcomes may differ in severity and duration depending upon the economic, social and health conditions of children and their families (United Nations Organization, 2020). Due to sudden suspension of schools of more than 1.5 billion worldwide due to COVID-19 in more than 210 countries since April 8, 2020, and other restrictions, children are facing severe access to the resources, social support, face-to-face services and disrupted routines (United Nations Organization, 2020).
The United Nations Organization (2020) has feared that it may lead to severe psychological distress, domestic violence, child abuse, neglect and exploitation for children. The longer inactivity of children due to school closures, strict social distancing and fear of COVID-19 may have a deleterious effects well-being of children (Avenue et al., 2020; Lee, 2020). The earlier observations of the effects of natural disasters, traumatic events and shorter social distancing during epidemics have been reported to cause negative mental health symptoms, substance use, domestic violence and abuse in children. The effects of COVID-19 may be assumed to exert more negative life outcomes (depression, anxiety, domestic violence and loneliness) for children as it was more severe, unknown and fatal (Galea et al., 2020; G. K. Tiwari, Pandey, et al., 2020; G. K. Tiwari, Rai, et al., 2020).
Children may not remain unaffected from the negative consequences of the whole environment filled with extreme fear, uncertainties, social distancing and prolonged deprivation of schooling experiences (Jiao et al., 2020). A recent study 320 children with age ranging from 3 to 18 years in China reported extreme emotional attachment, disturbance, irritability and extreme fear about knowing about the epidemic (Jiao et al., 2020). Besides, the study also observed disturbed sleep, nightmares, irregular appetite, ill-physical symptoms, discomfort, anger, inattention and excessive emotional attachment in children (Jiao et al., 2020; Tiwari, Kashyap, et al., 2020).
Previous studies have been confined to the assessment of the impacts of less severe natural or man-made adversities on the life outcomes of children (Klein et al., 2009) and thus, there is a clear gap in addressing the effects of the restrictions, uncertainty and fear of COVID-19 like pandemic on the life outcomes of children (Lee, 2020; United Nations Organization, 2020). In this backdrop, the present study aims to explore the consequences of COVID-19 on the psychological distress and other life outcomes of the children with the age ranging from 9 years to 11 years as perceived by their full-time mothers employing the Narrative Thematic Analysis (Creswell, 2014). In Indian society, the whole life of a full-time mother revolves around her children and she is well-known to the experiences of her children (Ahirwar et al., 2019). Besides, understanding the mothers’ perception of the distress of their children will help to develop an in-depth understanding of the real impacts and come up with a proper intervention plan. This age group was chosen as the children of this age group carry some ability to understand the severity and impacts of restrictions of COVID-19. Besides, their life goals related to the social, interpersonal, health and academic areas are relatively explicit and they have a proper sense of social connection, peer relation and future-orientation. These children are also capable of sharing their experiences with their caregivers and have some understanding of social realities and broader human collectives. A qualitative design was chosen for two reasons. First, it has been suggested that a qualitative design is most useful when there is no guiding framework or theory (Creswell, 2014). Second, the restrictions of the nationwide lockdown in India did not allow face-to-face interactions for a large quantitative data collection.
Methods
The study employed the Narrative Thematic Analysis (Creswell, 2014) that used a telephonic semi-structured interview protocol for data collection. Using a purposive sampling method, 27 mothers were contacted through telephonic calls at first. Out of these, only 20 (Age Range = 28-54 years, M = 41.15, SD = 6.54) gave their telephonic consent to answer the questions regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on the behaviour and performance of their children (Age range = 9-11 years, M = 10.08, SD = 0.65). Out of 20 children, 7 (Age range = 9-11 years, M = 10.14, SD = 0.75) were males and 13 were females (Age range = 9-11 years, M = 10.04, SD = 063). Only those mothers were included in the study whose children aged between 9 to 11 years and who have been a full-time caretaker of their children. The full-time mothers may be assumed to represent the information-rich for their children behaviours and experiences (Patton, 2015). The sample size was determined as per the suggestions relevant for a narrative thematic study based on purposive sampling (Guest et al., 2006). The biographic information has been given in Table 1. According to the suggestions of the American Psychological Association Journal Article Reporting Standards (Levitt et al., 2018), details which characterized the research design, research team, contributions, sample extraction, participant recruitment, data collection, data analysis procedure and methodological integrity in this study have been presented in Table 2.
Table 1. Demographic features of the mothers and their children
S. No. | Details of the Mothers | Children |
Age | Education | Family | Members | Domicile | Gender | Age (yrs.) | Class |
1. | 45 | Postgraduate | Nuclear | 4 | Urban | Male | 9 | 5th |
2. | 54 | Secondary | Joint | 8 | Semi-urban | Female | 11 | 7th |
3. | 48 | Postgraduate | Joint | 7 | Urban | Female | 9.50 | 6th |
4. | 38 | Postgraduate | Nuclear | 5 | Urban | Male | 10.50 | 7th |
5. | 43 | Postgraduate | Nuclear | 3 | Urban | Female | 10 | 5th |
6. | 50 | Secondary | Joint | 9 | Semi-urban | Male | 11 | 6th |
7. | 39 | Graduate | Joint | 7 | Urban | Female | 9 | 5th |
8. | 51 | Matriculation | Nuclear | 5 | Semi-urban | Male | 10 | 6th |
9. | 46 | Graduate | Nuclear | 4 | Urban | Male | 9.50 | 5th |
10. | 32 | Intermediate | Joint | 9 | Urban | Female | 9.5 | 6th |
11. | 28 | Graduation | Nuclear | 4 | Urban | Male | 10 | 5th |
12. | 38 | Graduate | Nuclear | 3 | Semi-Urban | Female | 11 | 6th |
13. | 35 | Postgraduate | Nuclear | 5 | Semi Urban | Female | 10 | 5th |
14. | 42 | Graduate | Nuclear | 5 | urban | Female | 11 | 7th |
15. | 41 | Postgraduate | Joint | 5 | Urban | Female | 10 | 5th |
16. | 42 | Postgraduate | Nuclear | 3 | Urban | Female | 10 | 5th |
17. | 41 | Postgraduate | Joint | 5 | Urban | Male | 11 | 6th |
18. | 36 | Postgraduate | Nuclear | 4 | Urban | Female | 10 | 6th |
19. | 38 | Postgraduate | Joint | 9 | Urban | Female | 9.5 | 5th |
20. | 36 | Graduate | Nuclear | 5 | Urban | Female | 10 | 6th |