Child–parent relationship during the Wuhan COVID‐19 lockdown: Role of changes in preschool children's daily routines

• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Tony Xing Tan,Joy Huanhuan Wang,Peng Wang,Yu Huang
• Date: 01 February 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12755

RESEARCH

Child–parent relationship during the Wuhan

COVID-19 lockdown: Role of changes in preschool

children’s daily routines

Tony Xing Tan

1

|Joy Huanhuan Wang

2

|Peng Wang

1

|

Yu Huang

3

1

College of Education, University of South

Florida, Tampa, FL

2

College of Education, Texas Tech University,

Lubbock, TX

3

Private practice, Wuhan, Hubei, China

Correspondence Tony Xing Tan, College of

Education, University of South Florida, 4202

E. Fowler Avenue, EDU 105, Tampa, FL

33620, USA.

Email: tan@usf.edu

Abstract

Objective: We examined the impact of the strict lockdown

on 130 preschool-age children’s daily routines and how

their routine changes from pre-lockdown were related to

child–parent relationship quality during the lockdown.

Background: To contain the spread of the COVID-19, the

city of Wuhan underwent a strict 76-day lockdown, during

which children’s routines were drastically altered, yet fami-

lies did not have a frame of reference to use to determine

how changes in children’s routines would be related to

their family dynamics.

Method: Parents provided survey data on the amount of

time their children spent daily on learning, screen devices,

play and exercise, and nighttime sleep before, during, and

after the lockdown. The also described general family

functioning, child–parent closeness, and child–parent con-

flict during the lockdown.

Results: The lockdown led to changes in all four routines,

but all returned to pre-lockdown level after the lockdown

was lifted. Regression analyses showed that decrease in

play and exercise time was related to less child–parent

closeness, and decrease in learning time and increase in

nighttime sleep time were related to more child–parent

conflict.

Conclusion: Findings suggested changes in the children’s

play and exercise time, learning time, and nighttime sleep

time were related to negative child–parent relationship

(i.e., less closeness or more conflict), but favorable general

functioning was a protective factor.

Implications: Our study highlighted family resilience in

restoring the children’s routines after the lockdown, as well

as family vulnerability during the lockdown, as changes in

Received: 7 July 2021Revised: 6 June 2022Accepted: 3 July 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12755

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

92 Family Relations. 2023;72:92–104.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare