Research confirms that the mental health burdens following community-wide disasters are extensive, with pervasive impacts noted in individuals and families. It is clear that child disaster outcomes are worst among children of highly distressed caregivers, or those caregivers who experience their own negative mental health outcomes from the disaster. The current study used path analysis to examine concurrent patterns of parents' (n = 420) experience from a national sample during the early months of the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic. The results of a multi-group path analysis, organized by parent gender, indicate good fit to the data [X 2 (10) = 159.04, p < .01]. Results indicate significant linkages between parents' caregiver burden, mental health, and perceptions of children's stress; these in turn are significantly linked to child-parent closeness and conflict, indicating possible spillover effects for depressed parents and compensatory effects for anxious parents. The impact of millions of families sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic for an undefined period of time may lead to unprecedented impacts on individuals' mental health with unknown impacts on child-parent relationships. These impacts may be heightened for families whose caregivers experience increased mental health symptoms, as was the case for fathers in the current sample.

Scales assessing stressor exposure often fail to demonstrate adequate psychometric qualities, demonstrating low interitem reliability or complex factor structures, as would be expected, given that the majority of stressors are independent events. However, in large-scale mass crisis events, the stressors may be highly interrelated, indicating shared experience. Furthermore, few stressor exposure scales also measure appraised stressfulness of those stressors. Development of a psychometrically sound measure of both stressor exposure and appraisal advances the study of highly stressful events such as community-wide crises, especially in providing a useful measure of its cumulative stressfulness. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an enduring, worldwide stressor with an indefinite timeline. The COVID-19 Stressor Scale is a 23-item measure of stressor exposure and appraisal related to the pandemic developed within the first weeks of widespread shelter-in-place practices in the Unites States. We present initial psychometric results of the COVID-19 Stressor Scale. Results of a principal components analysis indicate that the measure is unidimensional and has strong internal consistency. Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated. The COVID-19 Stressor Scale is a useful measure for studying the ongoing stressors associated with the pandemic and presents a model for measuring other massive, ongoing crises.

The COVID-19 pandemic is linked to particularly potent psychological effects for children and their caregivers while families adjust to new daily routines for work, education, and self-care. Longitudinal associations are presented from a national sample of 271 parents (mean age = 35.29 years, 48.5% female) on resilience, mental health and stress indicators, and parenting outcomes. Multigroup path model results indicate significant associations between resilience and parent stress or parent perceived child stress initiates a sequence of significant linkages to parent depression, followed by caregiver burden and parent-child relationship quality. This final set of linkages between depression and both parenting outcomes were significantly stronger for men, who also reported higher rates of perceived child stress. Results suggest that fathers' depression symptoms and associated spill-over to perceived child stress is producing stronger effects on their parenting experiences than effects reported by mothers.

Caregivers have primary responsibility for teaching their children self-protective behaviors, including those behaviors recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Parents have an important role in scaffolding adherence to the CDC recommendations and in managing stress and regulate their emotions to adaptively cope during uncertain times like those facing communities nationwide. The present study is a qualitative, thematic analysis of parent-reported (n = 210; 64.8% female; average age = 39.33; 14.3% ethnic/racial minority) interactions with children (focal child age: 25.2% birth to 5 years old, 36.7% 6 to 11 years old, 37.6% 12 to 18 years old) about topics associated to COVID-19-related viral transmission suppression guidelines and stress/coping behaviors. Themes included discussions about personal and social hygiene, and parent reported sources of child stress, and child stress management efforts. Findings from our thematic analysis indicate parents are motivated to make scaffolding personal hygiene fun and engaging, signaling a positive, developmentally appropriate native approach to their role as sources of coping socialization. These findings also underscore the importance of providing information to parents in ways that can be translated to children in developmentally appropriate conversations about viral transmission suppression activities and stress management during disasters. Keywords COVID-19 • Parenting • Caregiver stress • Scaffolding • Thematic analysis Highlights • This paper presents the results of a qualitative, thematic analysis of parent-reported (n = 210) interactions with children about topics related to COVID-19. • Themes included discussions about personal and social hygiene, parent reported sources of child stress, and child stress management efforts. • Findings indicate parents are motivated to make scaffolding personal hygiene fun and engaging, signaling a positive, developmentally appropriate approach to their role as sources of coping socialization. The COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) global pandemic altered the daily routines of families nationwide. In the United States, this led to stay at home orders, school closures, cancellation of activities, and other significant disruptions to family routines. COVID-19 is highly contagious, and efforts to halt the transmission of the virus have led to pervasive and prolonged disruptions to daily life worldwide (CDC COVID Response Team 2020; Layne et al. 2020; Polizzi et al. 2020). Current research indicates high rates of COVID-related stressors caused by disruption to work/learning and daily routines, fear of infection, frustration and boredom, financial loss, circulation of misinformation, and limited access to reliable resources (Cluver et al. 2020; Presti et al. 2020; Ren et al. 2020), which are felt particularly keenly for those currently caring for children in their homes (Park et al. 2020; Pew Research Center 2020; Russell et al. 2020; Tambling et al. 2020). A better understanding of how caregivers commun...

Responding to families at heightened risk for mental health burdens during the COVID-19 pandemic is critical-evidence suggests parents face elevated burdens compared to their nonparent counterparts. Building on studies that demonstrate a spillover of stress across domains and individuals within families, this study examines longitudinal predictors of elevated risks for clinical depression among parents based on relational family indicators, COVID-specific stressors, and stress and emotion regulation indicators. Baseline data were collected from parents (n = 176; average age 37.04, 50% female) on April 27-28, 2020, 5 weeks after the first U.S. quarantines began. Follow-up data were collected 30 days later. Results indicated concerning levels of parents' mental health symptoms over this short time span, including elevated stressors and exacerbated mental health symptoms for approximately one-quarter of parents. Given the need for agile service responses for those at the greatest risk, this article examines predictions of clinically significant depression through binary logistic regression. These individuals were more likely to report greater anxiety and stress symptoms, as well as report less closeness in their parent-child relationships; couple satisfaction was not a significant predictor of depression. Implications include recommended agile responses to alleviate distress and expand access to mental health supports, particularly in light of pervasive shelter-in place orders that limit access to previously established coping supports and sources of social connection (e.g., schools or community centers), that are anticipated to recur in the months ahead.