Parents’ perception on physical activities of children aged 6-8 years during Covid-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemic ushered in a new age, impacting all members of the global population, especially children, who were among the most susceptible. These developments impacted not just access to education and physical and psychological safety, but also social and physical activity (Kourti, et al., 2021). Lockdown reduced playing time, causing children's body weight to rise. Behavior issues in children have become a severe concern owing to a lack in physical activity during school closures. Prolonged lockdown can interfere with physical activity, cause a change in food, cause weight gain, and alter their lifestyle and sleeping patterns. (Kabir, Hasan, & Bhuya, 2021). This research attempted to explore the parents’ perception about physical activities of children aged 6-8 years old during Covid-19 pandemic. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and group discussion. This study discovered that parents understand the importance of physical activities but there have been gaps in their practices where parents tried to involve their children with different activities or children got themselves involve in other activities e.g., watching TV for long time but those are not related to physical activities always and all these resulted in different consequences e.g., weight gain. However, it was found that if parents get the knowledge on how to involve children in different physical activities during challenging times, it will help them to reinforce their knowledge about children’s physical development that helps them practice physical activities related to child’s physical development.