Data were collected from 29 April 2020 until 6 July 2020 as part of the i-FAMS-Covid Consortium. Parents with a child between the ages of 3-and 7-years-old responded to the survey with reference to one target child. In this subsample (n=376) of the main UK survey sample (nUK=706), limited to parents who responded to at least one of the current study’s key questions, parent respondents had a mean age of 37.93 years (n=367, range=21-55, SD=5.74), 90% of respondents were female (n=338), and 93.3% reported their ethnicity as White (n=280). 52.3% of target children were male (n=195) and the mean age of the children was 6.06 years (n=376, range=3.86-7.97 years, SD=1.07).

Connection to nature - Our analyses focussed on parental responses to two survey questions: a forced ‘Yes / No’ response to the question “Overall, do you think your child’s connection to nature has changed?” and a free text justification question “If yes, how do you think your child’s connection to nature has changed and why?” In total, 376 parents responded, of whom 372 answered the forced response question and 307 included a text-based response. We used qualitative content analysis to examine parents’ text-based answers. Socio-economic status - A composite measure of family socioeconomic status was created as the mean Z-score of parent/caregiver reported highest level of parental education, parent occupation category, and spaciousness and number of bedrooms in the family home. A higher score on this composite variable indicated higher socioeconomic status. Parent occupation and the occupation of the other primary parent/caregiver was coded based on categorisations from the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics Standard Occupation Classification (ONS, 2020a). Spaciousness of the family’s residence was reported by parents/caregivers as either ‘small and cramped,’ ‘small but adequate,’ ‘quite spacious,’ or ‘very spacious’. Additionally, parents were also asked if their child was eligible for pupil premium. 60 parents indicated that their child was eligible for pupil premium, and as expected, these families has a significantly lower score on the composite SES variable (M = -0.74, SD = .56), compared to children ineligible for pupil premium (M = .11, SD = .58), t(369) = 10.50, p < 0.001.
Covid disruption - Covid disruption was determined based upon survey responses to the extent to which a family experienced impacts from Covid-19 in the form of financial strain, impacts to work situation, family conflict and worry; this was based upon work by Prime et al. (2020). Child well-being - Parents/caregivers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, 1997) for the target child during the pandemic. Responses are scored based upon a 3-point Likert scale (not true, somewhat true, and certainly true). In this sample, internal consistencies were good (Cronbach ɑ for behavioural problems = .81; emotional problems = .76).