Nearly two out of three parents in the U.S. are barring their children from playing with children who don’t live with them, according to the IPREX Parent Normal survey, fielded by Marketing for Change Co. The study looked to understand the new normal family life emerging from the coronavirus pandemic.
Almost two out of three (64%) parents report that they are eating and watching entertainment together more as a family than before the coronavirus. Fifty-seven percent are cooking at home together more, and 52 percent are playing board games together more. The average screen time has also increased, with parents reporting their children spending an average of 5.1 hours on screens, compared to 3.7 hours on an average Friday before the coronavirus. Forty-three percent of this increase for all ages was in distance learning and academics. Parent screen time is also on the rise – 58% of parents report spending more time on computers and smartphones.
The research was conducted April 1-8, 2020.
GfK retail sales figures from March 9 – April 5, 2020, show how Europeans’ tech buying behavior has changed in response to the pandemic. Working at home has driven up sales of monitors (+120%), printers (+68%), laptops (+62%) and keyboards (+61%) in five major European markets. Webcams have seen the largest sales growth peak at +297%.
As the desire for at-home entertainment has increased, sales of media sticks and boxes rose by +50% in some markets. In Great Britain, sales of TVs rose 31%. Gaming consoles also benefitted, with sales units up +259% in Great Britain, +130% in Germany, +132% in France, +108% in Spain and +65% in Italy. Gaming laptops also profited from the play-at-home trend and achieved a robust double-digit growth during the same period, ranging between 33% (Italy) and 92% (Spain). In Germany, France and Spain the gaming laptops outperformed the non-gaming ones in terms of unit growth rates.