1794 The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on time use, beliefs, childcare and child development for first-time parents in England

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has generated a catastrophic shock to the development of this generation of children, not only through the increased financial hardship faced by many, but also through the substantial disruption to routines, learning time, use of childcare and social contact. In England, social distancing restrictions have varied both regionally and over the course of 2020. In this project, we study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on child health and development, the level of investments parents are putting into their children, and determinants of these decisions such as parental beliefs about the importance of different investments.ObjectivesThis paper analyses whether parental beliefs about the importance of different investments differ by individuals’ characteristics, and whether beliefs are predictive of actual investment decisions.MethodsWe collected primary survey data for 560 first-time parents living in England, with one chid less than five years old, who had not started primary school before the pandemic hit. Our first survey wave ran from 31st May to 9th June 2020, and the second between 12th July and 6th September 2020. Our rich data includes, amongst other things, detailed time-use diaries, types of childcare used before, during and after the pandemic, changes in employment and finances, and child health and nutrition. As social distancing restrictions in England evolve, we are running an additional wave of our survey. Ongoing research will incorporate this additional data, building the panel of time-use diaries, as well as analysing differences in child nutrition as an investment in child development, and using SDQ scores and child health measures as a proxy for child development. Additionally, we analyse how individual’s beliefs may be determined by where in England they live by merging in Local Authority level characteristics.ResultsExploiting variation between multiple waves of the survey, and between hypothetical scenarios to elicit respondents’ beliefs, we employ an individual-fixed-effects approach. Our preliminary results indicate that the first lockdown caused significant differences in patterns of children’s time-use and the use of childcare. We also find significant differences in beliefs about the costs and benefits between types of parental investment. Although parents believe that parental play, play with friends and schooling improve child development, they perceive that parental play is the most important input for reaching a good level of development. Attending school is also perceived as the activity most likely to result in catching COVID-19, followed by play with friends and parental play. Concordant with beliefs about the costs and benefits of schooling, childcare usage is low among those eligible during lockdown, and after lockdown usage does not reach pre-pandemic levels. We find that parental beliefs, time-use and childcare attendance vary significantly between individual’s socioeconomic characteristics.ConclusionsThe lack of return to normal childcare use may be partially determined by parents’ beliefs that the benefits of parental play outweigh the costs. Given that these perceived benefits and costs vary systematically by individual’s characteristics, policy makers should consider targeted information campaigns to improve information about the benefits and costs of childcare use.