Areej Mohammed Alabdulsalam¹, Mezoun Almohaimeed¹, Mostafa Kofi¹*, Dakhel Fahad Almubarak², Abdulelah Mutlaq Alotaibi³, Raghad Sulaiman Alkahmous⁴ and Rakan Ziyad M Alotaibi⁵

¹F&CM Department, PSMMC, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
²Medical Intern, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj, Saudi Arabia
³General Practitioner, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
³Medical Student, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⁴General Practitioner, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

*Corresponding Author: Mostafa Kofi, F&CM Department, PSMMC, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Received: February 28, 2022; Published: March 29, 2022

Abstract

Background: Pandemic outbreak causes various effects on different parts of our lives: the learning process. One of the ways to continue education is virtual learning which replaces traditional ways. It is a mixture method between face-to-face teaching and an online approach [1].

Aim: To improve mothers' mental health who deal with their children during virtual learning during a pandemic.

Method: A cross-sectional study was undertaken at Riyadh's Prince Sultan Military Medical City's Al-Wazarat healthcare center. During the outbreak, three hundred eight mothers were given a self-administered questionnaire that assessed sociodemographic variables, homeschooling data, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Results: A total of 308 mothers participated, and the vast majority 292 (98%) of them were Saudi. Almost all 306 (99.4%) of the participants reported spending time with their children during online learning. Class room-based schooling was the preferred schooling style by 209 (68.08%) of the mothers. In addition, 43 (14%) were borderline anxiety, and a similar percentage was borderline depression. The prevalence of anxiety and depression was 191 (62%) and 222 (72.1%), respectively. Multivariate logistic regression showed that classroom-based schooling was the significant risk factor for anxiety and depression with OR=86.761, 95%CI (30.467-247.067), and 53.005 95%CI (14.855-189.128), respectively, and a P-value of <0.001.

Conclusion: Depression and anxiety were highly prevalent among mothers with children in homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Class room-based schooling was the only significant risk factor for anxiety and depression. At the same time, old age was a significant protective factor from depression among the participated mothers. This study highlights the recognition of the importance of mental health screening among women who have children studying online.

Recommendation: Measures need to be implemented to decrease the prevalence of depression and anxiety among mothers who take care of their children during online learning, such as decreasing the number of mothers' working hours and asking the father to support the mother and helping them during educational processes.

Keywords: Virtual Learning; Pandemic; Depression Anxiety; Mothers; Children

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Citation

Citation: Mostafa Kofi., et al. “The Psychological Effect of Virtual Learning on Mothers During the Pandemic with their Children”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 6.4 (2022): 171-186.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Mostafa Kofi., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.