Pandemic Parenting: The Short-Term Impact of COVID-19 on Parent and Child Functioning

• In Event: Parenting in a pandemic: Family adversity and resilience during the onset of COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: Families across the globe faced unprecedented challenges at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which abruptly and drastically changed the nature of day-to-day family life. A health crisis of this magnitude presents implications across multiple domains of family functioning, including impacts on parental stress and child adjustment, which may differ by child developmental level. It is well known that parental stress has an important and bidirectional relationship with parenting behavior and child adjustment, especially in the presence of major life stressors. The current study examines bidirectional relations between parent stress and younger and older children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors across four time points spanning the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. (March to June 2020).

Methods: Participants were 455 parents or caregivers of children in grades K-12 living in the U.S. (child age M=9.40, SD=3.42, 48.1% male; parent age M=40.95, SD=5.86, 93.0% mothers). Parents provided demographic information and completed assessments on general stress (Perceived Stress Scale; Cohen et al., 1983), parenting stress (Parental Stress Scale; Berry & Jones, 1995), and child adjustment (Pediatric Symptom Checklist; Jellinek & Murphy, 1988). Differences in parent stress and child functioning in families with younger (grades K-5; n=349) versus older children (grades 6-12; n=105) were assessed. Then, two cross-lagged panel models using multi-group analyses were conducted in Mplus Version 8.0 to assess directional effects of parent stress and child internalizing (see Figure 1) and externalizing behaviors (see Figure 2) in younger compared with older children across time.

Results: Parents of younger children reported higher parenting stress over time (Survey 1 t(440)=3.40, p=.001; Survey 2 t(268)=2.97, p=.002; Survey 3 t(239)=2.72, p=.007; Survey 4 t(284)=2.77, p=.006), but did not differ in their levels of general stress compared with parents of older children. Approximately 23.6% of children were rated by their parents as showing clinical levels of psychosocial difficulties in the period from March to June 2020. Specifically, younger children were at relatively higher risk for clinical-level externalizing problems compared with older children (χ^2(1)=6.64, p=.01), whereas older children were at higher risk for clinical-level internalizing problems compared with younger children (χ^2(1)=5.84, p=.02). Cross-lagged panel model results indicated significant concurrent cross-sectional associations between parent stress and child adjustment across time in younger and older children, but especially among younger children. Regarding cross-lagged effects, in the internalizing model, higher child internalizing behaviors predicted higher subsequent parent stress among both younger and older children, but higher parent stress predicted higher subsequent child internalizing behaviors only among families with younger children. In the externalizing model, higher child externalizing problems predicted higher subsequent parent stress, but only among parents of younger children, and higher parent stress predicted higher subsequent child externalizing problems, but only among older children. Results suggest evidence of transmission of stress between parents and their children, but the nature of this transmission during periods of extreme stress may depend on child developmental level. Implications for family functioning will be discussed.

Authors

• Ruth Speidel, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• D. Zelechoski, Valparaiso University
  Non-Presenting Author