Remote Instruction Is Bad for Mom and Dad

This article was originally published on the Wall Street Journal with Corey DeAngelis.

We’ve heard a lot about how school closings affect children, but what about parents left scrambling for child care and in-person learning options? In 2020, such disruptions disproportionately caused women to leave the labor market to take care of their children at home.

Using Census Bureau survey data, we found that pandemic-induced remote instruction made several mental-health outcomes worse for parents of school-age children. A 10-percentage-point increase in the share of public school districts going fully remote in a state was associated with about a 1-point increase in the proportion of parents reporting feelings of anxiety most days in the previous week. The same increase in remote instruction was associated with a 0.73-point increase in the proportion being worried, a 0.61-point increase in being depressed, and a 0.55-point increase in losing interest in daily activities.

… (continue reading on WSJ)