The COVID-19 Pandemic: Changes in Parent–Child Activities at Home from Spring 2020 to Spring 2021 from a Cross-Cultural View

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for the opportunity to read the article titled: The COVID-19 Pandemic: Changes in Parent-Child Activities at Home from April 2020 to April 2021 from a Cross-Cultural View 

Please see attachment for comments throughout the paper.

Main issues:

T1 and T2 and not clearly defined. Were both times full lockdowns for all 3 countries involved in this study? Was there a question to determine whether some children attended day care (this was allowed during lockdown in some countries (e.g. for medical staff to attend work)? If so, some of these results could be impacted in terms of 'time at home' data. For example, if a child was at home 24 hours a day, their time interacting with parents or on digital devices could vary to child who spent most of their day at daycare. Also, what home learning from an educational source was provided for the children reported in this study (e.g. 8 year olds are in primary/elementary school) and how did this possibly impact the data? Did you question what digital devices were available at home for children use and did this/these need to be shared amongst family members/siblings? Were these provided by educational settings?

Was anyone excluded from this study? If so, why?

Are parent child activity styles the same as parent-child literacy activities?

The paper suggests that their is controlling for the child's age which I think is appropriate because there could be significant differences in the data between young children and older children but this is not clear. Also, the authors need to more clearly define what data they are referring to for younger children and older children. Prose writing should include ages of children.

I am not sure what the significance of this study is. Main findings tend to talk about age of parents and education of parents and their involvement in their children's learning so, how can these findings contribute to the literature and what implications could be offered from this study? The last paragraph of this paper there is a statement about parents being "regularly guided on how to be effectively involved in their young children's early literacy and digital activities. Preparing protocols, including reference to digital content, will help them in stressful times..." - how was this a finding to this study?

All the best.

 

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Various editing issues have been identified and highlighted in the paper (see attachment).

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The study is titled "Changes in Parent-Child Activities at Home during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Cultural Perspective from April 2020 to April 2021". The aim of the research was the investigation of parent-child activities at home.In three cultural settings, joint activities between young children and their parents were studied: Bulgaria, Israel (Jews), and Spain. A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Parenting was employed to investigate this issue, which holds significance in education. To clarify the study's primary objectives, the authors may explain why they chose these three regions. Furthermore, the literature review yielded scant exploration of parenting in these regions, thereby failing to emphasize differences or similarities. As this topic is a significant element of this research, it is expected that the authors will add more discussion to the conclusions of this study..

 

The authors asked for further explanation of how the 'developmental niche' model was applied within the framework of the study focusing on parent-child activities. Please provide additional clarity on this matter.

 

The quality of parent-child interactions during an epidemic may be influenced by the nature of the parents' work and their socioeconomic status. Hopefully, the authors will be able to clarify why this variable was not taken into account in the present study; if this aspect can be added to the survey, it should enhance its research contributions.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript has been attentive to reviewer comments.

Improved.