Knowledge, attitude, and behavior of parents toward school reopening amidst coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Indonesia

Abstract

AIM: Recently, the subject of reopening schools has raised several concerns, especially on the possibility of new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cluster cases. Parent’s role is essential in this matter. Therefore, this study aims to understand the parents’ knowledge, attitude, and behavior toward COVID-19 in Indonesia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 206 Indonesian parents. A 55-items questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of subjects. In this study, median split tests, Kruskal–Wallis, Cronbach’s α, and Pearson correlation test were used. RESULTS: Subjects were found to have high levels of knowledge, especially in the knowledge of COVID-19 as a contagious viral disease (98.5%), and the necessity for children to maintain personal hygiene to prevent COVID-19 (98.5%). Subjects’ attitudes were highest at understanding how to prevent COVID-19 (95.1%) and teaching children how to avoid COVID-19 (98.1%). Subjects’ attitude was lowest at hearing the news of the death of COVID-19 scares them (72.8%), and on how their children are getting bored at home because of COVID-19 (69.9%). Subjects’ are shown to have high levels of behavior in every question. This study found a significant correlation between socioeconomic status and subjects’ knowledge (p = 0.007). CONCLUSION: This study revealed a lack of understanding of prevention strategies among low-income households. Hence, there is a need for targeted messaging and health education in low-income settings that consider the challenges they may face when attempting their children to practice COVID-19 prevention procedures if schools reopen.