Online Activities, E-Learning and Parental Role in Primary School Students During Covid-19

Abstract

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has affected almost every aspect of life including accelerated and unplanned digitalization, with particular emphasis on changes in school education provision and the introduction of distance learning. During December 2020, when educational activities were carried out in an online environment for most children, a follow-up survey was conducted using a survey questionnaire. The purpose of this paper is to present the research results on the Internet use habits, children’s Internet safety as well as children’s perception of the parental role among seventh and eighth grade elementary schoolchildren (N = 210), at average age of 13.5 years, to determine if there are changes in the abovementioned variables according to gender, and to compare these results with the first wave research conducted in 2017 (N = 286, average age 13.76). The research results indicate that students during the pandemic spent more time on the Internet than before the pandemic (87%). 59% of schoolchildren believed that their parents possessed poorer Internet skills than children themselves, and most students reported how their parents informed them on the potential risks of Internet use. The research found that the pandemic increased the perception of parental involvement through talking about using the Internet, parents’ informing the children about risks, and spending time together using the Internet