Child Behavior Problems During COVID-19: Associations With Parent Distress and Child Social-Emotional Skills

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: COVID, Child Outcomes, and Home Learning Environments

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated government-mandated shutdowns disrupted schooling, socialization, and family life for school-aged children during spring 2020. With 247 children aged 7 to 9 years during Ohio’s shutdown period, we examined behavior problems that may have been increased due to these disruptions. We investigated whether differences in parent-reported child behavior problems were associated with concurrent parent distress during spring 2020 and/or children’s social-emotional skills measured via teacher-reports from the previous year (spring 2019). Both concurrent parent distress and child pre-pandemic social-emotional skills significantly predicted behavior problems. However, non-significant interaction effects indicated that neither of child pre-pandemic behavior control nor peer social skills had significantly buffering function on the influence of parent distress on child behavior problems.

Authors

• Jing Sun, The Ohio State University

• Britt Singletary

• Hui Jiang, Ohio State University

• Laura M. Justice, The Ohio State University

• Tzu-Jung Lin, The Ohio State University

• Kelly Purtell, The Ohio State University