The Effects of Parental COVID-19 Induced Stressors on Self-Regulation and Social-Emotional Outcomes in Low-Income Children

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many school and workplaces to close, dramatically disrupting young children’s environments. National studies and news stories have emphasized the striking increase in job insecurity, income loss, parental stress, and other hardships (Karpman et al., 2020; WHO, 2020). Previous research has reported that these sources of stress have a negative impact on child functioning and wellbeing (Conger et al., 1992; Murray et al., 2014; Brown et al., 2020). For example, decreased income is linked with worse academic achievement and behavior outcomes (Berger, Paxson, & Waldfogel; 2009; Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997), parental depression is linked with decreases in child social and behavioral wellbeing (NRC & IOM, 2009; Mustillo et al., 2011), and food insecurity is linked with worse cognitive functioning and academic skills (Shankar, Chung, & Frank, 2017). Other stressors likely to be exacerbated by COVID and the stay-at-home orders triggered by the pandemic are increased household chaos and struggles to supervise children, which are also likely to disrupt healthy child development (Marsh, Dobson, & Maddison, 2020; Griffith, 2020).
While many have expressed concerns over how COVID will impact children's school achievement and wellbeing once they return to school, few studies have responded with empirical data on the association between COVID-induced stressors and developmental outcomes. The current study addresses this gap in the literature, using data from the Tulsa School Experiences and Early Development Study (Tulsa SEED), a longitudinal study that captured household and child functioning both before and during COVID, in a sample of low-income families in Tulsa, OK. We aim to demonstrate which COVID-related stressors are most strongly linked with reductions in child self-regulatory or social-emotional competencies.
In this study, we examined the effects of COVID-related stressors (e.g., income loss, employment change, parental stress, household stress, food insecurity, child health and care stress) on child self-regulation and social-emotional outcomes for 320 low-income children during COVID-19 (spring/summer2020). Predictor variables of COVID-induced stressors and reports of child emotion and behavior problems were gathered from parent survey responses, while measures of child self-regulation were obtained through teacher reports during COVID-19.
Descriptive statistics demonstrate that low-income parents in our sample reported, for instance, high levels of income loss (54.98%), employment change (65.37%), depressive symptoms (23.08%), and difficulty finding food (47.90%). Given previously documented associations in the literature between these stressors and our outcomes, we expect to find that heightened levels of employment change, income loss, food insecurity, parental stress, household stress, and child health and care stress will predict worse self-regulation and social-emotional outcomes in low-income children. Next steps include estimating multiple regression models predicting teacher-reported child self-regulation and parent-reported emotional and behavioral problem from the COVID-related stressors, controlling for pre-COVID levels of the outcome and other key demographic characteristics.
Results from this study will inform school districts and community agencies on how to better support vulnerable families during this pandemic, and will provide avenues for future investigation in more economically diverse samples about levers for closing COVID-exacerbated income-based gaps in self-regulation and behavior outcomes.

Group Authors

The Tulsa SEED Study Team

Authors

• Olivia Melanie Mirek, Georgetown University
  Presenting Author

• Anne Partika, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna D. Johnson, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sherri L Castle, University of Oklahoma
  Non-Presenting Author