Parenting practices and family relationships during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ghana

Samuel Asiedu Owusu, Bernard Ekumah, Ruby Victoria Kodom, Nancy Innocentia Ebu Enyan, Irene Korkoi Aboh, Reginald Quansah, Sheila A. Boamah, Godfred O. Boateng, Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah, David Teye Doku, Epaphrodite Nsabimana, Stefan Jansen, Frederick Ato Armah

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been far reaching across almost every sphere of life. Families, which are the basic units of society, have not been spared the ravages of the pandemic. Changes in family daily routines as a result of COVID-19 can affect spousal relationships, parenting and childcare practices. However, the extent to which the pandemic has affected parenting practices and family relationships in Ghana is not known. The goal of this study was to assess how parenting practices and family relationships have been influenced during the COVID-19pandemic in Ghana. Data for this paper was drawn from an online questionnaire response from 463 participants in Ghana as a subset analysis from a multi-country study on personal and family coping system with COVID-19 pandemic in the global south. The mean score for pre-COVID-19 relationship with partner (36.86) was higher (p<0.0001) than the mean score for during COVID-19 relationship with partner (35.32) indicating that COVID-19 has had negative influence on relationships. The mean score for pre-COVID-19 parenting (32.78) was higher (p<0.0001) compared to the mean score for during COVID-19 parenting (31.40) indicating negative influence on parenting. We have predicted that participants whose coping levels were “Well” on the average, are likely to be doing well in relationship with partners and parenting practices during the COVID-19 period The challenging public health contain-ment measures of the COVID-19 pandemic have negatively influenced the relationship between partners and parenting practices in Ghana.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1849
JournalJournal of Public Health in Africa
Volume13
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Jul 2022

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Ghana
  • Parenting
  • practices
  • relationships

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Parenting practices and family relationships during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ghana'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this