Life Interrupted: Family Routines Buffer Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Adoption of certain behavioral and social routines that organize and structure the home environment may help families navigate the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current cross-sectional study aimed to assess family routines prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic and examine associations with individual and family well-being. Using a national sample, 300 caregivers of children ages 6-18 were surveyed using Amazon Mechanical Turk platform during the first three months of COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Caregivers reported on family demographics, COVID-19related stress, engagement in family routines (prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic), stress mindset, self-efficacy, and family resiliency. Overall, families reported engaging in fewer routines during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic. COVID-19-related stress was highest in low-income families, families of healthcare workers, and among caregivers who had experienced the COVID-19 virus. Moreover, COVID-19-related stress was negatively related to self-efficacy, positively related to an enhancing stress mindset, and negatively related to family resilience. Engagement in family routines buffered relations between COVID-19-related stress and family resilience, such that COVID-19-related stress was not associated with lower family resilience among families that engaged in high levels of family routines. Results suggest that family routines were challenging to maintain in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, but were associated with better individual and family well-being during this period of acute health, economic, and social stress. Highlights• Families reported engaging in fewer routines during the COVID-19 pandemic, when compared to prior to the pandemic.• Families reported significant reductions in child bedtime routines and screen time limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic, when compared to prior to the pandemic.• Engagement in family routines buffered the impact of stress on family resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.The onset of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic was a major public health event characterized by unprecedented disruptions to daily life in the United States and around the world. By April of 2020, 48/50 states enacted state-wide school/school district closures for the entire academic year (Education Week, 2020) and 45/50 states issued local or statewide stay-at-home orders (NBC News, 2020). These dramatic changes to daily life, occurring in the context of economic and health uncertainty, posed notable challenges to the psychological well-being of individuals of all ages. Negative effects may include post-traumatic stress symptoms, confusion, and anger (Brooks et al., 2020). Indeed, a preliminary poll of US adults in March 2020 found that nearly half of respondents endorsed that their life had changed in a "major way" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and by May of 2020, one third of poll respondents reported high levels of psychological distress (Pew Research Center, 2020).Despite emerging...

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