Parenting through a pandemic: Mental health and substance use consequences of mandated homeschooling.

Abstract

The declaration of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic led to the closures of schools worldwide to contain disease spread. In the present study, we examine the effects of this mandated homeschooling on parents’ mental health and substance use. In a study of 758 couples, 211 of whom were homeschooling, we contrasted homeschooling effects on general mental health (anxiety and depression) and on COVID-specific mental health (socioeconomic and traumatic stress), and on optimism. We also examined effects on coping-related use of alcohol and cannabis. Actor–partner interdependence model results demonstrated negative impacts of mandatory homeschooling; there were significantly lower levels of optimism and greater use of cannabis to cope and marginally higher use of alcohol to cope in couples who were versus were not homeschooling. These levels were higher than prepandemic norms. We then explored the parenting dynamic through actor and partner effects. Among homeschooling families, more time spent homeschooling was associated with increased anxiety, depression, and COVID-19-specific socioeconomic and traumatic stress in the homeschooling parent; for the homeschooler’s partner, there was significantly increased alcohol use to cope and marginally increased traumatic stress. These findings highlight the need for the design and delivery of educational and mental health supports for parents during mandatory homeschooling required for COVID-19 and other pandemics—so that parents can best support their families through these uncertain times.

Young children's traumatic stress reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic: The long reach of mothers' adverse childhood experiences

“…Rather, recent pandemic-related negative events appeared to play a more substantive role in pandemic-related maternal TSS than past adversity in the current study. This is consistent with emerging literature showing a direct link between hours spent homeschooling and greater traumatic stress symptoms in parents ( Deacon et al, 2021 ). More research is needed to further explore the manner in which the timing (distal versus proximal) and nature (early childhood versus pandemic-related) of stressors may uniquely influence the emergence of parental and child TSS.…”

Assessing positive adaptation during a global crisis: The development and validation of the family positive adaptation during COVID-19 scale

“…The social disruption caused by COVID-19 has adversely impacted several domains of child, caregiver, and family functioning ( Gassman-Pines et al, 2020 ; Essler et al, 2021 ). Much of the early research on families focused on pandemic-related disruptions, such as the stressors of homeschooling ( Deacon et al, 2021 ), parent work-life conflict ( Wang et al, 2022 ), loss of income ( Wang et al, 2021 ), and strained parent–child relationships ( Cassinat et al, 2021 ). However, an important part of studying the sequelae of pandemic disruption is to examine processes of resilience—that is, the processes leading to positive adaptation despite exposure to significant threat, adversity, or trauma ( Luthar et al, 2000 ; Masten and Cicchetti, 2016 ).…”

Risk and protective factors for posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth in parents of children with intellectual and developmental disorders

“…The rapid change of lockdown policies caused great uncertainty and influenced families with children with an IDD (e.g. reduced childcare services and mandatory homeschooling), and profoundly changed stress levels (Bentenuto et al, 2021 ; Deacon et al, 2021 ; Deroches et al, 2021 ). This may have impacted the generalizability of the results of the study.…”