"I Need to Just Have a Couple of White Claws and Play Animal Crossing Tonight": Parents Coping With Video Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic was an incredibly stressful time for parents of school-age children. Supervising remote schooling while also balancing work and life demands, in addition to health concerns, demanded much from parents. This study considers how parents used the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons to cope with pandemic-related stress. Using Reinecke and Rieger's (2021) recovery and resilience in entertaining media use model as a theoretical framework, this interview study of 33 parents from 27 families found that parents psychologically detached from their pandemic-stress laden worlds with the game, used the game to relax, found a sense of accomplishment through achieving goals via mastery experiences in the game, and appreciated the sense of control that the game afforded. An emergent code was found in that the game facilitated much-needed social connections for parents, which was part of their pandemic-stress coping. This study provides further evidence for video games as coping tools, with a specific focus on parental pandemic stress. Public Policy Relevance Statement This interview study looks at how parents used the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizon to cope with COVID-19 pandemic-related stress. Parents used the game to detach, relax, find a sense of accomplishment and control as well as facilitate social connections.