The Effects of School Closures on Homeschooling and Mental Health: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

52 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2022 Last revised: 16 May 2023

See all articles by Christos Makridis

Christos Makridis

Stanford University; Columbia University - Columbia Business School

Clara Piano

Samford University

Corey DeAngelis

American Federation for Children; Cato Institute; Reason Foundation

Date Written: January 5, 2022

Abstract

This paper investigates the surge in homeschooling over the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences for parental mental health outcomes. First, we document three new facts about the incidence and correlates of homeschooling. Second, we find that increases in the share of public school districts that went fully remote are associated with increases in the probability of adopting homeschooling. Our identification strategy exploits within-state changes in homeschooling and remote instruction, rather than levels, thereby removing time-invariant heterogeneity across locations. Third, we find that the increase in remote instruction led to a sharp decline in parental mental health, but homeschooling functioned as an imperfect substitute that partially shielded the deterioration in mental health. Although many parents that adopted homeschooling may have done so out of necessity, we find suggest evidence that at least some parents who persisted in homeschooling even after re-opening may have permanently shifted as a meaningful post-pandemic alternative.

Note:
Funding: No funding received for the paper.

Declaration of Interests: We, the authors, declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Keywords: COVID-19, Homeschooling, Hybrid and Remote Instruction, Unions, School Closures

JEL Classification: J13, J21, J22, H75

Suggested Citation

Makridis, Christos and Piano, Clara and DeAngelis, Corey, The Effects of School Closures on Homeschooling and Mental Health: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic (January 5, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4001953 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4001953

Christos Makridis (Contact Author)

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

Columbia University - Columbia Business School ( email )

3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
United States

Clara Piano

Samford University ( email )

800 Lakeshore Drive
Birmingham, AL 35229
United States

Corey DeAngelis

American Federation for Children ( email )

1020 19th St NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

Cato Institute ( email )

1000 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001-5403
United States

Reason Foundation ( email )

1747 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20009
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
351
Abstract Views
3,163
Rank
137,878
PlumX Metrics