Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed family functioning and increased parenting demands, leading to increased risk for poor psychosocial outcomes. Emerging evidence underscores the significant impact the pandemic has had on maternal mental health concerns. In contrast, paternal mental health has yet to be described. The current study describes the prevalence of depression and anxiety in fathers of young children as well as associated risk and protective factors.Methods: As part of the Parenting during the Pandemic study, fathers (N = 70) of children age 0-8 years old self-reported on mental health symptoms and additional concerns, while mothers (N = 236) provided a partner-report of father perinatal depression.Results:. Clinically significant depression (37.1%) and anxiety (22.9%) were prevalent in fathers. Partner reported perinatal depression was prevalent in 61.9% of fathers. Higher financial strain and previous mental health history were associated with increased risk of both depression andanxiety. Maternal report of paternal depression was associated with higher financial strain, greater number of children in the home, and lower maternal-reported marital quality. Limitations: The current study used cross-sectional data from an online cohort. The sample size limits the generalizability of the findings; future research should continue evaluating this important topic with larger samples.Conclusions: Compared to pre-pandemic population comparisons, paternal depression and anxiety are elevated in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Intervention recommendations and implications are discussed.

Parent-child interactions are crucial for child development. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected mental health and increased parenting challenges impacting parent-child functioning. The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between parent factors and child activities to identify parental needs. A convenience sample of parents (N = 708), primarily mothers (n = 610; 87.4%) aged 35.59 years old (SD = 5.59; range = 21-72), with children ages 2-8 years completed an online questionnaire between April 14-June 1, 2020. Participants mostly resided in Canada and had an income of >$100,000. Parent-child activities were measured as total weekly time and combined time across activities within two categories: hands-on play and screen time. Bivariate correlations informed block-wise linear regression models. For families with childcare needs, parental anxiety was associated with higher total hands-on play (F(3,142) = 14.01, p < .001), combined hands-on play (F(2,85) = 6.82, p = .011), and combined screen time (F(2,82) = 6.25, p = .014). Families without childcare needs indicated parenting stress was associated with lower total hands-on play (F(3,212) = 7.95, p < .005) and combined hands-on play (F(2,110) = 5.67, p = .019), and higher supervised screen time (F(3,138) = 6.14, p = .014). Family structure and indices of socioeconomic status were also predictive of activities across childcare needs and child ages. To promote high-quality parent-child interactions and positive developmental outcomes in the pandemic, policy makers should support childcare needs, parent mental health and stress, and provide evidence-based guidelines for child screen time.

Telehealth interventions have the opportunity to scale evidenced-based therapeutics and increase service access to historically hard to reach populations, including rural, and minority groups. Behavior management parenting interventions are a best-practice intervention to treat a range of disruptive behavior disorders and family dysfunction concerns, which have traditionally occurred in person, but recently been trialed online due to growing demand and a need for remote delivery during COVID-19. There is limited and mixed information to date regarding evidence for online services and minimal research on client and therapeutic factors associated with better outcomes, which is critical for advancing efficacy in the rapidly-growing approach to treating child mental illness. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis (k = 24, total number of intervention participants = 1469 and control participants = 800) of the impact of digital parent training interventions on parent skill, parent mental health, and child externalizing mental health outcomes from 2000 to 2020, among children 2-12 years old, across four databases. Exclusionary criteria include programs targeted for parents of children with intellectual disabilities, autism, brain injury, nutrition/health/dental needs or primary medical diagnosis. Across outcomes, there was a modest effect size of digital parent training interventions (g =.22-.30), compared to controls using random effect two-level and multi-level models. Study heterogeneity varied across outcomes (I² = 18.6% to 66.3%). Results of publication bias were mixed across tests, but they were suggestive of a slight inflation of the effects sizes across outcomes. We tested several moderators related to child demographics, family socioeconomic status, intervention design, and risk of bias. We found the effects of digital parent training on parent skills and child outcomes were stronger if the intervention used was evidence-based, combined hybrid interactive platforms with a therapist and was compared to an inactive control. Given the limitations from the existing literature assess moderating effects regarding population characteristics (i.e. SES, parent mental health), we call on future studies to provide standardized demographics to aide future knowledge synthesis work and provide templates for shared measurement. We preregistered our meta-analysis here, with datafile, code and supplementary: https://osf.io/e35bt/.

Background: Maternal stress levels and mental health symptoms have significantly increased since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began. As a result, experts have become concerned about elevated substance use given well-known associations between negative emotions and increased substance use. Extant research has not examined substance use among mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic which is a critical next step given links between maternal substance use and adverse childhood outcomes. Methods: Data was collected April 14th to 28th, 2020 from 508 mothers (Mage = 34.8 years, SD = 5.1) with young children between the ages of 0 to 8 years old via the Parenting During the Pandemic study. To identify associations between self-reported changes in substance use, mothers completed self-reported questionnaires on their substance use, motivations for using substances, and their mental health. Results: Of participating mothers, 54.9% did not change their substance use, 39.2% increased their use, and 5.9% decreased their use. Findings indicate that mothers with an anxiety disorder or clinically relevant anxiety symptomatology were more likely to report increased substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using substances to cope with anxiety, but not depression or boredom, was significantly elevated among mothers who self-reported increased substance use during the pandemic relative to those reporting no change to or a decrease in usage. Using substances to cope with anxiety was a risk factor for increasing substance use. Discussion: A large proportion of mothers have reported increasing their substance use since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results highlight the crucial need to treat maternal anxiety and the importance of teaching mothers alternative coping strategies, other than using substances, to reduce the incidence of increased substance use among mothers and its negative sequelae.

Group-based parenting programs have been implemented for over 50 years as a cost-effective way to promote child mental health and reduce behavior problems. However, some evidence suggests that their effects are limited and inconsistent. To inform next steps in program development, more systematic examinations about the overall efficacy of programs for both parenting and child outcomes in early childhood is needed as well as the program and family level factors that predict for whom programs work more or less well. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized-controlled-trials in preschool aged children over the past 20 years (2000 to 2020). Sixty-five articles evaluating group-based parenting programs for 3 to 5-year-old children were included (N = 7658). Meta-analytic results indicated that programs had small overall effects on improving parenting quality and child behaviours. Significant heterogeneity was present with parent-report of child behaviour outcomes linked to greater effect sizes compared to teacher or observer reports. Moderator analyses showed that higher parental education and children’s clinically significant disruptive behaviour problems were linked to greater improvements in parenting quality. There were also significant effects of publication year on child behaviour outcomes, suggesting that program effects have been improving over time. Other moderator analyses were not possible due to limited reporting of theorized factors (e.g., parent mental health). Overall, group-based programs are linked to improvements in parenting and child outcomes during the preschool age. Continued innovation in program development is recommended to increase efficacy and tailor service type and intensity to specific family needs.