Home-Schooling During COVID-19 Lockdown: Effects of Coping Style, Home Space, and Everyday Creativity on Stress and Home-Schooling Outcomes

The present study examined parents' experiences of home-schooling their children during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the U.K. A total of 322 parents completed an online survey between the 1st May and the 24th July 2020. Relationships were explored between predictor variables (coping mechanisms, household income, adequacy of space, access to "green" space) and outcome variables (parenting self-efficacy, discipline, home-schooling relationships) mediated by stress and moderated by creativity and parenting dimensions. Moderated mediation analyses showed that inadequate space at home and negative coping mechanisms resulted in elevated stress and worse outcomes in terms of parents' approaches to discipline and their experience of home-schooling their children. Negative outcomes were more pronounced for parents who used high levels of behavioral control. In turn, negative outcomes were reduced when parents had higher levels of self-perceived everyday creativity and outcomes were improved by positive coping strategies. Our findings suggest that interventions focused on developing creative self-efficacy and positive coping strategies may be effective routes to help parents deal with the stress of supporting their children with periods of schooling at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.