Reciprocal effects between young children's negative emotions and mothers' mental health during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relations between young children's negative emotions and their mothers' mental health during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Background The COVID‐19 pandemic caused the public a certain degree of psychological symptoms, and family environments and relations have been changed dramatically as a result. The relations between young children's negative emotions and their mothers' mental health have not been sufficiently determined for the context of a pandemic or other large‐scale crises. Method A survey was administrated on 8119 Chinese mothers of 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children with the Symptom Checklist 90 and the Child Negative Emotion Questionnaire. Results The canonical correlation results indicated that there were covariation trends between young children's anger and their mother's obsessive–compulsive symptoms and hostility, children's fear and mothers' phobic anxiety, and children's tension and mothers' interpersonal sensitivity and depression. These correlations were all positively significant. Conclusion During the COVID‐19 pandemic, the predictive power of young children's negative emotions to their mothers' mental health was greater than that of the reverse. Implications This study provides a scientific guidance on the regulation of young children's negative emotions and the improvement of mothers' mental health during the pandemic as well as potential emergencies in the future.

Children’s age matters: Parental burnout in Chilean families during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The changes in routines experienced by young children during the pandemic demanded more attention, physical and emotional efforts from their parents ( Wei et al, 2022 ), in addition to the difficulty of reconciling the routines of remote work with those of care and home, what may be the sources that led to greater PB, especially in the mothers who took part in our study. Previous evidence shows gender inequalities in parenting and domestic chores ( Goverment of Chile, 2020 ) and the way this is reflected in PB scores, corresponding to national and international studies.…”

Relation between young children's anger and fathers' mental health during the COVID‐19 epidemic: Moderating role of gender and child number

“…After the tsunami and nuclear radiation accident caused by the earthquake in Japan, the outdoor activity space of young children was greatly reduced, which affected the physical and mental condition of young children (Itagaki, 2017). Young children who live in a monotonous and narrow physical space for a long time are prone to anger (Wei et al, 2022). With the increase of parental pressure, fathers tend to be more irritable and punitive toward their children and tend to show more authoritarian and harsh parenting behaviours, whereas their children will show fewer sharing behaviours and be more verbally and physically aggressive (Hadjicharalambous & Demetriou, 2021).…”

Investigation of Malocclusion and Associated Factors in Preschoolers: A Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study

“…As a consequence of sudden changes in family dynamics with the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in children’s eating, sleeping, and sociability routines have also been observed with greater intensity since 2020 [ 13 , 14 ]. Furthermore, a higher frequency of diagnoses of psychological distress in children was observed, with reports of exacerbated childhood anxiety, fear, and hyperactivity [ 15 , 16 ]. In addition, there has been a significant increase in reports of physical and psychological abuse and exposure to screen time [ 17 , 18 ].…”