COVID-19 and Parenting Challenges with Food Insecurity and Educational Vulnerability

The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially damaging to the economic stability of disadvantaged Hispanic households with low-wage earners. School closures due to Covid, moreover, have served to exacerbate the chronic problem of food insecurity for these families while adding a second problem of parents ill-equipped to assist their children's learning in a virtual environment. We use survey data collected from a disadvantaged group of Hispanic mothers in New Brunswick, New Jersey (n = 135) and implement a mixed methods approach of using log-linear analysis to test a "double whammy" hypothesis and complementing it with some rich qualitative data. We find that less-educated parents are especially susceptible to the dual problems of providing food for their children and helping them adjust to on-line learning. Specifically, less educated parents have 3.5 times higher odds of experiencing food insecurity and difficulty assisting children with online learning; and have over 6 times greater odds of having difficulties finding groceries and assisting children's virtual learning, relative to more educated parents. We also discuss well-post-Covid, future implications of our findings.