Stress and parenting during the global COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background: Stress and compromised parenting often place children at risk of abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment has generally been viewed as a highly individualistic problem by focusing on stressors and parenting behaviors that impact individual families. However, because of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), families across the world are experiencing a new range of stressors that threaten their health, safety, and economic well-being. Objective: This study examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to parental perceived stress and child abuse potential. Participants and Setting: Participants included parents (N = 183) with a child under the age of 18 years in the western United States. Method: Tests of group differences and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were employed to assess the relationships among demographic characteristics, COVID-19 risk factors, mental health risk factors, protective factors, parental perceived stress, and child abuse potential. Results: Greater COVID-19 related stressors and high anxiety and depressive symptoms are associated with higher parental perceived stress. Receipt of financial assistance and high anxiety and depressive symptoms are associated with child abuse potential. Conversely, greater parental support and perceived control during the pandemic are associated with lower perceived stress and child abuse potential. Results also indicate racial and ethnic differences in COVID-19 related stressors, but not in mental health risk, protective factors, perceived stress, or child abuse potential. Conclusion: Findings suggest that although families experience elevated stressors from COVID-19, providing parental support and increasing perceived control may be promising intervention targets.

COVID-19 Life Events Spill-Over on Family Functioning and Adolescent Adjustment

“…Individuals with strong support from spouses and employers and a positive work-life balance during the pandemic also report less marital and parental stress than those with lower levels of support and less balance (Chung, Chan, et al, 2020). Similarly, Brown et al (2020) found that parents who received more support from others reported less perceived stress. Whereas some commentators suggest that greater time together under pandemic stress may result in greater con ict in some families (Buttell & Ferreira, 2020; Campbell, 2020), others note the potential for greater closeness in other families (Gambin et al, 2020).…”

“…As one key example of a broad pandemic stressor, families around the world report being affected by quarantine and mandatory social distancing (Brooks et al, 2020). These quarantine practices result in challenges to work-family balance through less support for parents from employers and spouses Craig & Churchill, 2020), unemployment (Brown et al, 2020), online schooling demands (Segre et al, 2020), and increased caregiver burden (Russell et al, 2020;Patrick et al, 2020). Although quarantine may entail spending more time at home with family, Ammar et al (2020) found that family members in Asia, Africa, and Europe reported feeling more socially isolated as a result of fewer opportunities to visit with family outside of the home as well as friends and neighbors during quarantine.…”

“…Relying on prior work by Cummings and colleagues (Kouros et al, 2014;Zemp et al, 2017), Liu and Doan (2020) note that COVID-related stressors, such as those related to parents' work or children's online schooling, may "spillover" into family life, affecting marital, parent-child and sibling relationships. Emerging studies indeed show that greater parental stress is related to higher rates of symptomatology during the pandemic for children (Russell et al, 2020;Brown et al, 2020;Romero et al, 2020;Origlés et al, 2020) and that pre-existing child symptomatology predicted greater stress for families during the pandemic (Spinelli et al, 2020). For instance, children whose parents experience greater stress during the pandemic show greater changes in mood and behaviors (Orgilés et al, 2020;Romero et al, 2020) as well as increased stress and parent-child con ict (Russell et al, 2020;Spinelli et al, 2020).…”

“…Although some of these changes result in stressors that challenge family functioning (Chung, Chan et al, 2020;Fontanesi et al, 2020) others may offer opportunities to preserve or even bolster family functioning in the face of the pandemic (Orgilés et al, 2020). Emerging research from around the world documents the impact of the COVID-19 and previous epidemics/pandemics on families in terms of economic and resource loss, work-related stress, isolation and separation, illness and exposure concerns, caregiving burdens, and schooling needs for children (Ammar et al, 2020;Brooks et al, 2020;Brown et al,, 2020;Craig & Churchill, 2020;Del Boca et al, 2020;Garcia de Avila et al, 2020;Hawryluck et al, 2004;Orgilés et al, 2020;Saurabh & Ranjan, 2020;Segre et al, 2020). Evidence that these stressors impact the mental and physical health of both parents and children is growing (Brown et al, 2020;DelBoca;Origlés et al, 2020;Patrick et al, 2020;Saurabh;Segre et al, 2020;Xie et al, 2020).…”

COVID-19, Family Dynamics, and Perceived Mental Health Among Families in Singapore

“…Female and unmarried parents reported higher rates of worsening mental health (Patrick et al, 2020). In the US, parents who perceived more support from others experienced lower stress (Brown, Doom, Lechuga-Peña, Watamura, & Koppels, 2020). Additionally, the more difficulties Italian parents perceived regarding quarantine (e.g., difficulties in finding a relaxing space alone, time for the partner and for kids, and to do leisure activities), the more their well-being was undermined (Spinelli, Lionetti, Pastore, & Fasolo, 2020).…”