Approximately one-quarter of parents lie about their child’s COVID-19 status or don’t follow public health guidelines like quarantines meant to prevent viral spread, according to survey findings published in JAMA Network Open.1
Researchers, led by Andrea Gurmankin Levy, PhD, MBE, used a subset of data from a larger national sample of 1733 US adults to focus on survey responses among 580 parents (mean age, 35.9 years; 67% non-Hispanic White; 70% identified as women) of children younger than 18 years.
In total, 150 parents (25.9%) reported misrepresentation and/or nonadherence in at least 1 of 7 behaviors, the most common of which was not telling someone who was with their child that they thought or knew their child had COVID-19 (24.0%) and allowing their child to break quarantine rules (21.1%). Forty-seven parents (10%) said their child was vaccinated when they were not.