About 1 in 4 misled others about their child\u2019s COVID status, vaccination and related details, a nationwide survey found.
\u201cLike everyone else, parents worried about getting sick with COVID-19 or about losing their job, but parents also had to manage juggling job responsibilities while their children were home in quarantine,\u201d said study co-author Andrea Gurmankin Levy, a professor of social sciences at Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Conn. \u201cAnd it\u2019s quite possible that some parents misrepresented their child\u2019s COVID-19 status or didn\u2019t adhere to testing or quarantine rules in an attempt to ease some of this burden.\u201d
The findings — published March 6 in JAMA Network Open — follow up on earlier research by the same team that concluded 4 of 10 American adults misled others about whether they had COVID or adhered to public health measures.
This time, researchers used information from a subset of 580 participants in the original study who reported being parents or guardians of children under 18.
The participants were asked additional questions about choices they made on behalf of their kids.
Researchers found that, overall, about 26% misrepresented a child\u2019s COVID status in some way.
About 60% said they had lied about vaccination status when they wanted their unvaccinated children to participate in an activity that required shots.
More than 50% of those who admitted misleading others about their child having COVID or not following health recommendations said they did so because they wanted the freedom to do what they thought best.
About 43% said they didn\u2019t tell others that their kids had COVID because they didn\u2019t want them to miss school.
About 35% said they didn\u2019t disclose that their child had COVID because they could not afford to miss work.
\u201cBased on our study, it appears that many parents were concerned about their children missing school, and as a parent of three school-aged kids, I can understand that,\u201d said co-author Angela Fagerlin, chair of population health sciences at University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City.
\u201cYet, at the same time, they\u2019re potentially exposing other kids to a serious illness,” Fagerlin said in a university news release. “So, it\u2019s tricky because what you might think is best for your child might not be best for other children in the classroom.\u201d
Researchers said this deception could have contributed to the spread of the infection and added to high rates of hospitalization and death.
Some of the parents\u2019 choices were unlikely to harm others — for example, lying about their child’s age so he or she could be vaccinated.
Co-author Alistair Thorpe, a former postdoctoral student at University of Utah Health, said 7 of 10 survey participants were women so the study doesn’t fully represent the population makeup of the United States.
Researchers also suspect some parents may have been less than honest in their survey answers.
\u201cLying about lying is certainly a possibility,\u201d Fagerlin said. \u201cIf anything, 26% is probably the minimum number of parents who misrepresented their children\u2019s COVID-19 status during the pandemic.\u201d
Researchers said officials need to develop policies and technologies that don\u2019t depend on the honor system or jeopardize privacy to protect public health.
\u201cWe need to do a better job of providing support mechanisms like paid sick leave for family illness so that parents don\u2019t feel like their only option is to engage in misrepresentation or non-adherence to public health guidelines during a future infectious disease outbreak that matches or exceeds the magnitude of COVID-19,\u201d Levy said in the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n