Caring for Your Child during COVID-19—Utilizing a Light-Touch Parenting Resource during Lockdown in Indonesia

Aala El-Khani, Ali Yassine, Karin Haar, Narendra Narotama, Lucky Pramitasari, Melvi Rosilawati and Wadih Maalouf
Additional contact information
Aala El-Khani: Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section, Drug Prevention and Health Branch, Division of Operations, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Ali Yassine: Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section, Drug Prevention and Health Branch, Division of Operations, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Karin Haar: Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section, Drug Prevention and Health Branch, Division of Operations, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Narendra Narotama: Drug Demand Reduction Division, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Menara Thamrin Building 10th Floor, Central Jakarta, Jakarta 10250, Indonesia
Lucky Pramitasari: Drug Demand Reduction Division, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Menara Thamrin Building 10th Floor, Central Jakarta, Jakarta 10250, Indonesia
Melvi Rosilawati: Charitas Hospital Palembang, Central Jakarta, Jakarta 30129, Indonesia
Wadih Maalouf: Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section, Drug Prevention and Health Branch, Division of Operations, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-7

Abstract: To tackle the spread of COVID-19 globally, countries around the world have responded by implementing measures such as lockdowns, social distance maintenance, temporary school closures, and remote working and learning. COVID-19 social isolation has been found to increase stress, and potentially have long term harmful effects on both mental and physical health. Stress and compromised parenting often place children at risk of violence and abuse. In parallel, times of hardship might also provide an opportunity to build stronger relationships with our children. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) joined many other agencies and international organizations in recognizing the threat the pandemic might have on individual and family wellbeing, and has thus availed a number of light-touch parenting resources. One such tool is the ‘Caring for your child in response to the COVID-19 lockdown’ booklet, developed to enhance parenting skills, and to build family harmony as challenged by the COVID-19 context. This short communication reflects on a feasibility study that took place in Indonesia during the implementation of this booklet with 30 parents in five cities. Thematic analysis identified challenges in parenting during COVID-19, as well as reported positive experiences of engaging in the parenting resource. The findings are discussed with regard to the usefulness of light-touch parenting information, adding to the context of the feasibility and global scalability of reaching families. The implications pave the way to the engagement and implication of more intensive parenting information interventions in high-stress contexts. Despite the challenge, there is promising news for families globally, as agencies and policy-makers begin to recognize the importance of supporting families with the appropriate skills to navigate extreme stress contexts with effective strategies.

Keywords: COVID-19; family skills; parenting; resilience; stress; lockdown (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4046/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4046/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:4046-:d:782127

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().