Lockdown study

The question

The UK lockdowns put many families with young children in an unusual position. Fathers who normally worked away from home were suddenly there all day, and grandparents could not visit. This study asked how parents of toddlers saw that situation and what they thought it meant for their children.

Approach

With Mikaela Brough, I interviewed 24 mothers and fathers of toddlers from 17 families in Britain, and analysed the interviews thematically.

What we found

Most parents did not think the lockdown had harmed their child's development, although they worried about it. Having fathers at home was seen as a clear positive for the father's attachment to the toddler and the toddler's attachment to the father. Views on grandparents were split almost evenly between parents who thought their absence damaged the grandparent-child relationship and parents who thought it made no difference. Co-parenting during lockdown was described as overwhelmingly negative, both for the couple's relationship and for sharing childcare. Overall, parents felt father-child bonds were strengthened, at some cost to the couple relationship.

In progress

I am now writing up a second paper from the study, on co-parenting practices under stress.

Publications

• Sheppard, P. and Brough, M. (2022). Father-toddler bonding during the Covid-19 lockdown: qualitative insights from 17 families in Britain. Social Sciences 11(12): 542.
• Sheppard, P., He, J., Benson, J. and Curtis, C. (in preparation). Co-parenting among the chaos: what we can learn from parents with toddlers during the UK lockdown.