Parenting Adolescents in Times of a Pandemic: Changes in Relationship Quality, Autonomy Support, and Parental Control?

Abstract

This multi-informant study examined effects of COVID-19 on parent-adolescent relationships in the spring of 2020. Four bi-weekly measurements before and four bi-weekly measurements during the lockdown were collected among Dutch adolescents (N = 179, Mage = 14.26 years, 69% girls) and their parents (N = 144, Mage = 47.01 years, 81% female; educational level 12% low, 33% medium, 55% high). Adolescents and parents reported on parental support, parent-adolescent conflict, autonomy support, psychological control, and behavioral control. Additionally, they reported how their daily routines had changed during the lockdown. Parents and adolescents spent more time together during lockdown (before M = 8.6h, during M = 12.7h) but less time with friends (before M = 8.1h, during M = 2.1h), and reported on average 13 corona-related rules. Pre-registered piece-wise growth models confirmed that autonomy support decreased immediately after the lockdown, but no mean-level changes were observed in the other relationship dimensions. During the first two months of the lockdown, parents reported gradual increases in autonomy support and decreases in behavioral control. Moreover, significant differences between families were found in sudden and more gradual relationship changes, which correlated strongly with pre-lockdown characteristics of the relationship, and in some models with adolescent oppositional defiance and legitimacy beliefs. In sum, findings suggest resilience in most families, but also heterogeneity. Some families were negatively affected (e.g., more conflicts and psychological control) and others were positively affected (e.g., more warmth, less conflicts). A tailored approach is therefore needed to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on family functioning.

Testing Transactional Processes between Parental Support and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: From a Daily to a Biennial Timescale

“…The first batch of participants started in November 2019 (N = 195) and the second batch started in February 2020 (N = 64). Mean-levels of parental support did not differ before versus during the COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020 (Bülow et al, 2020). Data were collected through bi-weekly questionnaires that were sent through e-mail for a full year.…”

“…The study also included a first 'baseline' questionnaire and five longer questionnaires that were implemented every three months. For more details about the procedure see Bülow et al (2020). The study was approved by the ethical committee of the faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences of Tilburg University (Nr.…”

Growing Up in Times of COVID-19: When a Window of Opportunity is Temporarily Closed

“…Parents also introduced rules to structure the lives of their children, such as doing homework and getting up in time. Longitudinal analyses of eight repeated assessments indeed revealed a significant decrease in autonomy-supportive parenting during the lockdown (Bülow et al 2020). As prohibition of contacts with friends and restriction of autonomy directly undermine the opportunities for growth, we anticipated a rise in conflicts and opposition (Van Petegem et al 2017).…”

Change in mental health, physical health, and social relationships during highly restrictive lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from Australia

“…Few studies have directly asked targeted questions about perceived relationship quality during the pandemic (Biddle et al, 2020b;Bulow et al, 2020;Cooper et al, 2020), and even less about the use of technology-mediated communication (Monin et al, 2020). In a recent Australian study Biddle et al (2020b) asked their 3,249 respondents from the general public 'How has the quality of your relationships with other people/family members in your household changed since the spread of COVID-19?'.…”