Enduring COVID-19 lockdowns: Risk versus resilience in parents’ health and family functioning across the pandemic

Abstract

Have the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic risked declines in parents’ health and family functioning, or have most parents been resilient and shown no changes in health and family functioning? Assessing average risk versus resilience requires examining how families have fared across the pandemic, beyond the initial months examined in prior investigations. The current research examines changes in parents’ health and functioning over the first 1.5 years of the pandemic. Parents ( N = 272) who had completed general pre-pandemic assessments completed reassessments of psychological/physical health, couple/family functioning, and parenting within two mandatory lockdowns in New Zealand: at the beginning of the pandemic (26 March–28 April 2020) and 17 months later (18 August–21 September 2021). Parents exhibited average declines in psychological/physical health (greater depressive symptoms; reduced well-being, energy and physical health) and in couple/family functioning (reduced commitment and family cohesion; greater problem severity and family chaos). By contrast, there were no average differences in parent-child relationship quality and parenting practices across lockdowns. Declines in health and couple/family functioning occurred irrespective of pre-pandemic health and functioning, but partner support buffered declines in couple/family functioning. The results emphasize that attending to the challenges parents and couples face in the home will be important to mitigate and recover from the impact of the pandemic on parents’ and children’s well-being.

A descriptive literature review of early research on COVID-19 and close relationships

“…Hopefully, personal relationship researchers are continuing their investigations of COVID-19’s impact on close relationships. The ability to continue to study the long-term effects of COVID-19 on relational processes is one we hope scholars are availing themselves of, despite what we believe to be an escalating case of “COVID-19 research fatigue.” For example, emerging research by Overall et al (2022) followed participants from March-April 2020 to August-September 2021, observing declines in multiple forms of health and family functioning over that time. But, partner support buffered against these declines ( Overall et al, 2022 ), offering preliminary evidence of similar long-term effects as what we observed here across studies.…”

“…For example, emerging research by Overall et al (2022) followed participants from March-April 2020 to August-September 2021, observing declines in multiple forms of health and family functioning over that time. But, partner support buffered against these declines (Overall et al, 2022), offering preliminary evidence of similar long-term effects as what we observed here across studies.…”

Fathers and mothers’ parenting stress and adolescent depressive symptoms: the mediating roles of overt and covert coparenting conflict behaviors

“…Finally, this study was conducted during the lockdown period in China. It should be noted that some empirical studies have pointed out the detrimental effects of restricted activities on families [ 47 , 58 ]. For example, a study conducted during the lockdown [ 58 ] showed that the lockdown could increase parental PS levels to some extent, and it is pretty stressful for parents to achieve a balance between life, work, and childcare in the absence of other social help during this particular period [ 58 ].…”

“…Based on the results, researchers have emphasized the need for intervention programs to provide more support and guidance and thus prevent families from potential “scarring,” which could be regarded as a prolonged and intertwined individual and family problems. Another study [ 47 ] recorded changes of parents over the first 1.5 years of the pandemic and compared measurement results before and within two mandatory lockdowns during the pandemic. The findings showed that parents displayed elevated DS, reduced well-being, and poor physical health; poor cohesion in family ties and more chaos, but no obvious change in the parent–child relationship and parenting practices.…”

“…Overall, elevated mental health problems and decreased family functioning emerged in families faced with multiple risk factors [ 7 , 8 ] during the pandemic, but some families could also achieve resilient outcomes by adapting to these changes [ 18 , 47 , 50 ]. For example, one study revealed no change in couple relationship satisfaction from shortly before to shortly after the pandemic [ 69 ].…”