Mother–Child and Father–Child Emotional Availability during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

While the body of literature on COVID-19’s impacts on family life is rapidly expanding, most studies are based entirely on self-report data, leaving a critical gap in observational studies of parent–child interactions. The goal of this study was to evaluate parent–child relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic using the observational emotional availability (EA) construct. Parents (n = 43) were assessed using the Epidemic–Pandemic Impacts Inventory (EPII), the Flourishing Scale (FLS), and the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) questionnaires. The subcategories of the EPII were used to develop an EPII negative and an EPII positive for each parent. EA (sensitivity, structuring, nonhostility, nonintrusiveness, child responsiveness, and child involvement) was coded from filmed parent–child interactions. Separate hierarchical multiple regressions (HMRs) were run to evaluate each of the variables of interest (EPII and FLS) as predictive of EA. Child age (M = 6, SD = 4.68) and ACEs were added in subsequent steps for EPII negative and positive if the initial step was significant. For mothers (n = 25), results demonstrated EPII negative as a significant predictor of EA with child age and ACEs adding only small amount of variance to the prediction. The same HMR process was repeated for flourishing, with the covariate child age alone. For fathers (n = 18), flourishing was a significant predictor of EA and child age added only a small amount of variance to the prediction. Results indicate that experiencing high COVID-19-related stressors is associated with lower EA for mothers, but not fathers. Having high levels of flourishing during the pandemic was predictive of higher EA for fathers, but not mothers.

Being an Infant in a Pandemic: Influences of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Infants, Toddlers and Their Mothers in a Clinical Population

“…There were no significant differences in emotional availability between the pre-and post-lockdown group. While most mentioned studies found alterations of emotional availability during the pandemic [28,29,31], Shakiba et al [33] report that EA-scores are consistent before and during the pandemic in a study with infants. This is in line with our findings.…”

“…This effect is not visible in mother-infant-dyads recruited after the onset of the first German lockdown-though the direct comparison of this correlation did not reveal any effect. Arguably, the new conditions evoked by the pandemic, with their rising levels of maternal fear and an unexplainable outside world, could have led to differences in the interaction [28,32]. While no differences in the levels of emotional availability were observed, the outcome might differ.…”

“…Promotive factors in general are connected to a healthy development and overcoming obstacles [25,26], and could be leading towards higher resiliency against mental disorders in infancy and childhood as a final result [27]. It is well known that parental EA decreases under pressure-as shown during the pandemic situation worldwide [28]. In addition, studies pointed to the fact that parents showed more harsh parenting behaviors in parent-child relationships with children during the pandemic [29,30].…”