Life-Changing Experiences of Mothers with School-Age Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Focusing on Their Health Risk Perceptions and Health-Related Behaviors

Hye Jin Yoo, JaeLan Shim and Namhee Kim
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Hye Jin Yoo: College of Nursing, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Korea
JaeLan Shim: Department of Nursing, Dongguk University, Gyeongju 380660, Korea
Namhee Kim: College of Nursing, Brain Korea 21 FOUR Project, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: This study aimed to explore health risk perceptions, changes in health-related behaviors, and life experiences of mothers with school-age children during the early coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Data were collected between 16 July and 10 September 2020, by individual interviews and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. After the twelve participants’ experiences were analyzed, four themes and ten sub-themes were derived. The four themes were: “Struggling to identify the substance of COVID-19,” “Taking the initiative to protect the health of the family,” “Frustrated by the brutal reality of no end in sight,” and “Trying to adjust wisely to an inevitable new lifestyle.” The findings suggest that while the world remains in an ongoing battle with COVID-19, national health institutions should prepare a health education system for specific infection prevention methods that can be practiced by individuals in daily life.

Keywords: COVID-19; epidemics; health behavior; health risk appraisal; pandemics; qualitative research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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