Coronavirus

Pandemic Parenting: How Can I Support My College Student?

Maintaining social connections can help students cope with sadness or uncertainty.

Pandemic Parenting: How Can I Support My College Student?
AP
SMS

As if parenting weren't challenging enough, the coronavirus pandemic has raised a thousand new, unprecedented questions about work, school, finances and health. 

We asked the experts: How can I support my soon-to-be-college student or returning college student this fall? 

“It's kind of a dream-deferred type situation — there’s an actual loss, and that they have to go through the stages of loss and grievance with, because their whole world has kind of changed around a little bit. And so they need you as a parent to really be there and be that firm, stable foundation to say, 'I know this is tough, what you’re going through, and I'm not trying to minimize it. But I want you to know that we'll get through this together,'" suggested pediatrician Dr. Dontal Johnson. 

“Trying to find ways to connect with your friends, you know, playing video games together, Snapchatting together, maybe doing things outside if you can safely get together, doing what you can do to have those connections, because that's a normal part of being a young adult,” said clinical psychologist Carolyn Ievers-Landis.