The lockdown measures that were taken to contain the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 caused many parents to stay at home with their children. This unusual situation created both risks and opportunities for families. In the current study, we examined the role of parental identity as a resource for parental adaptation during this challenging period, thereby considering both parenthood experiences and parents' general mental health while also taking into account the cumulative risk to which parents were exposed (e.g., single parenthood). Further, to shed light on the mechanisms behind the effects of parental identity, this study addressed the mediating role of parental satisfaction of their basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. During the lockdown period in Belgium, 492 parents (88% mothers, Mage = 44 years, 63.7% in intact family, 31.2% with a university degree) completed online questionnaires on parental identity, need-based experiences, positive and negative parenthood experiences, and mental health. Several weeks earlier, these participants also rated their mental health and a variety of risks they were exposed to as part of a larger study. Results showed that a clear and self-endorsed parental identity was related to better parental adaptation, with parental need satisfaction playing a mediating role in these associations. Moreover, these associations remained significant after controlling for prior levels of parental mental health and for cumulative risk. Overall, findings suggest that parental identity serves as a source of resilience in an uncertain period such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Objectives Parents play an important role in supporting their child's social, behavioral, and emotional development. In the past decade, research on parenting in general populations increasingly relied on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to better understand the association between parenting behaviors and child behavioral outcomes. In populations of children with a developmental disability, however, very little research has examined parenting behaviors from an SDT perspective. This study examines associations between parenting dimensions (responsiveness, autonomy support, psychological control) and children's psychosocial outcomes (behavioral problems and psychosocial strengths) in and across four specific groups. Methods Parents of children between 7 and 15 years old with autism spectrum disorder (n = 95), cerebral palsy (n = 121), Down syndrome (n = 73), and without any known disability (n = 120) rated their parenting and their child's behaviors. Results Group comparisons indicated that mean levels of parenting did not vary widely across groups. By contrast, salient differences in behavioral presentations were observed, with parents of children with ASD reporting the most behavioral problems and the least psychosocial strengths. Multi-group structural equation models revealed similar, SDT-predicted relations between parenting dimensions and psychosocial development in each group. Three structural effects were found: whereas higher levels of psychologically controlling related to more externalizing problems, higher levels of responsive as well as autonomy-supportive parenting were associated with more psychosocial strengths. Conclusion These results confirm that need-supportive parenting is related to beneficial outcomes and that need-thwarting socialization is related to maladaptive development in and across youth growing up with and without special needs.
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