Corona and positive psychology. Proactive approaches to managing the pandemic's impact on parents and young children in elementary education

Abstract

Many studies, including the ICKE study (Flöter et al., 2021), the Corona-KiTa study (Autorengruppe Corona-KiTa-Studie, 2021), but also the parent survey conducted by the BMFSFJ (Bundesministeriums für Familie et al., 2020), the COMPASS survey (Huebener et al., 2020) and the study by Knauf (2020) come to the conclusion that parents of children of kindergarten age were exposed to a variety of risk factors during the Corona period. How parents personally perceived this stress and what influence it had on their cooperation with the kindergarten is the subject of the bachelor thesis described in this article (Huber, 2022). The central question was: How did parents of kindergarten children experience the care of their children and the cooperation with kindergarten teachers during the period from March 2020 to August 2021? By means of guided interviews (n = 4), an attempt was made to identify specific relief and risk factors in a retrospective narrative conversation with mothers. The results show that the respondents experienced a great deal of insecurity, inability to act, loss of income and stress from home schooling and parallel childcare during the Corona period. In the interviews, the mothers emphasised the importance of opening kindergartens as a return to normality, but also lamented the lack of personal interaction with staff despite telephone parent-teacher conferences and digital alternatives (parent post). In particular, the severely limited support during transitions such as familiarisation and the start of school increased the insecurity of the parents surveyed. Comparing the results derived from the questions with current research findings, such as the Corona-Kita-Studie (Kuger, Rauschenbach et al., 2021), it becomes clear how highly topical this issue continues to be. In the context of a concrete practical transfer based on the project ‘PERMA.teach Elementarstufe’ (Exenberger & Wolf, 2023), it is shown how the research topic is currently finding its way back into practice and attempting to offer solutions to the problems identified.