The COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan: Its Impact on a Newborn's Childcare Environment and on the Mother's Sense of Loneliness

Abstract

Ai Miyoshi, Yutaka Ueda, Mariko Taniguchi, Asami Yagi, Toshihiro Kimura, Eiji Kobayashi, Hitomi Arahori, Sayaka Ikeda, Kei Hirai, Tadashi Kimura

The COVID-imposed social isolation of Japanese mothers has significantly increased their already existing sense of loneliness. We report here on the changes that have occurred in the environment of home childcare and in the mother’s feelings of loneliness during the pandemic. In 2019, we conducted an online survey of mothers who had infants aged 4-12 months. Many of the survey questions concerned the home childcare environment and the mother’s sense of loneliness. In 2020, we conducted a follow-up COVID impact survey using the same questionnaire to determine the impact of the pandemic on the mothers. Because of the impact on mothers of the COVID pandemic, specifically around their methods of gathering information concerning childcare, we found that the child-rearing environment in Japan has detrimentally changed since 2019. Whether or not the mother felt stressed or felt they lacked sufficient information concerning childcare associated with their changed patterns of behavior due to the declaration of a state of emergency were associated with having an impact on the mother’s sense of loneliness. The importance of the appropriate transmission of information concerning childcare had increased due to this pandemic.

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