Attitudes and Experience of Malaysian Parents towards School Closure during the COVID-19 Pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33102/uij.vol33no3.354Keywords:
COVID-19, school closure, Malaysian parents, attitude, experienceAbstract
In 2020, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had triggered the lockdown in many countries around the world. School closure was no exception as a measure to limit the spread of the disease. This step was expected to bring some impact on parents, especially if both of them were working. In this study, we aimed to investigate Malaysian parental attitudes and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted an online cross-sectional survey by using a structured questionnaire, between May and June 2020. A total of 273 parents with children aged below 18 years old were involved. Descriptive analysis was done to determine the sociodemographic data of the respondents, their attitudes, and their experiences associated with the school closure during the outbreak. 97.4 % of parents agreed with the school closure. The majority of them believed the outbreak was serious and the school dismissal was appropriate to protect their children and the community. However, only 54.9 % were well prepared for the measure. 11.4 % of parents had difficulty arranging childcare. During the outbreak, 85.7 % experienced missing work and 71.4 % felt at risk of losing their jobs. The school closure also indirectly incurred additional costs for 88.6% of the parents and partially contributed to 75.5% of the parents losing income. Unexpected long-term school closure might cause some adverse outcomes to the employed parents during a pandemic, therefore, the health authority and education department should take this into consideration when mitigating this issue.
Downloads
References
Brooks, S. K., Smith, L. E., Webster, R. K., Weston, D., Woodland, L., Hall, I., & James Rubin, G. (2020). The impact of unplanned school closure on children’s social contact: Rapid evidence review. Eurosurveillance, 25(13). https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.13.2000188
Cauchemez, S., Ferguson, N. M., Wachtel, C., Tegnell, A., Saour, G., Duncan, B., & Nicoll, A. (2009). Closure of schools during an influenza pandemic. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 9(8), 473–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(09)70176-8
Ciotti, M., Angeletti, S., Minieri, M., Giovannetti, M., Benvenuto, D., Pascarella, S., Sagnelli, C., Bianchi, M., Bernardini, S., & Ciccozzi, M. (2020). COVID-19 outbreak: An overview. Chemotherapy, 64(5–6), 215–223. https://doi.org/10.1159/000507423
Jackson, C., Vynnycky, E., & Mangtani, P. (2016). The relationship between school holidays and transmission of Influenza in England and Wales. American Journal of Epidemiology, 184(9), 644–651. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kww083
Johnson, A. J., Moore, Z. S., Edelson, P. J., Kinnane, L., Davies, M., Shay, D. K., Balish, A., McCarron, M., Blanton, L., Finelli, L., Averhoff, F., Bresee, J., Engel, J., & Fiore, A. (2008). Household responses to school closure resulting from outbreak of influenza B, North Carolina. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 14(7), 1024–1030. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1407.080096
Mizumoto, K., Yamamoto, T., & Nishiura, H. (2013). Contact behaviour of children and parental employment behaviour during school closures against the pandemic influenza A (H1N1-2009) in Japan. Journal of International Medical Research, 41(3), 716–724. https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060513478061
National Health Service England. (2017). Health experts say “super-spreader” children should get flu vaccination to protect grandparents at Christmas. https://www.england.nhs.uk/2017/11/super-spreader-children-should-get-flu-vaccination-to-protect-grandparents-at-christmas/
Perrin, E. C., Leslie, L. K., & Boat, T. (2016). Parenting as primary prevention. JAMA Pediatrics, 170(7), 637–638. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.0225
Steelfisher, G., Blendon, R., Bekheit, M., Lidden, N., Kahn, E., Schieber, R., & Lubell, K. (2010). Parental attitudes and experiences during school dismissals related to 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) - United States, 2009. In MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (Vol. 59, Issue 35). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypdi.2011.01.006
UNESCO. (2021). Education: From disruption to recovery. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse#schoolclosures
Viner, R. M., Russell, S. J., Croker, H., Packer, J., Ward, J., Stansfield, C., Mytton, O., Bonell, C., & Booy, R. (2020). School closure and management practices during coronavirus outbreaks including COVID-19: A rapid systematic review. The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, 4(5), 397–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30095-X
Wang, G. H., Zhang, Y. T., Zhao, J., Zhang, J., & Jiang, F. (2020). Mitigate the effects of home confinement on children during the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University (Medical Science), 40(3), 279–281. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1674-8115.2020.03.001
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Chuong Hock Ting, Jeffery Stephen, Ahmad Khairi Hassan, Norashikin Abdul Moris, Noor Nasuha Noor Hamal, Nurul Ain Amidar, Mohd Azlan Rusdi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
If the article is accepted for publication, the copyright of this article will be vested to author(s) and granted the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, unless otherwise stated. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
