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The Impact of COVID-19 Stress on Child Adjustment: Identifying Sources of Resilience

Thu, April 8, 11:35am to 1:05pm EDT (11:35am to 1:05pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Despite the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on parents of young children, little is known about how COVID-19 stress affects young children’s adjustment and the factors that mitigate the negative impacts. Traumatic events contribute to irritability/anger, anxiety/somatic complaints, and sleep disturbances in young children (Masten & Narayan, 2012). Thus, we examined links between COVID-19 stress and externalizing problems, internalizing symptoms, and sleep problems in 3-5-year-old children. Greater COVID-19 stress was expected to negatively affect each area of child adjustment. According to research on resilience in the context of disaster/trauma, adaptation is a dynamic process involving interactions between developmental history, contextual supports, and current stressors (Cicchetti, 2010; Masten, 2011). Thus, in a longitudinal study, we examined the role of prior caregiving experiences, general caregiving environment, and COVID-19 caregiving environment, hypothesizing that prior and current supportive experiences would reduce the impact of COVID-19 stress on child adjustment.

Participants were 67 mothers and their 3-to-5-year-old child followed from infant age 6 months. COVID-19 data collection occurred between May–July 2020. Mothers completed the Epidemic-Pandemic Impacts Inventory, Child Behavior Checklist, and Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire. At 6 months, mother-child dyadic mutuality was observed and mothers’ attachment security was assessed. During the pandemic, mothers reported on whether they encouraged children to seek parents’ support with problems via the Parental Socialization of Coping Questionnaire. A family connectedness and stability composite during the pandemic was created from mothers’ reports of pandemic activities (e.g., eating together) and routines (e.g., day is predictable). Mothers and children discussed children’s biggest challenge during the pandemic via recorded Zoom calls. Frequency of internal states language (e.g., emotion terms) and maternal elaborative style has been coded on a subsample. Coding will be complete this fall.

COVID-19 stress was associated with children’s externalizing (r=.46; p<.001), internalizing (r=.27; p<.05), and sleep (r=.29; p<.05) problems. As seen in Table 1/Figure 1, the impact of COVID-19 stress on children’s externalizing problems was significantly weaker among children who experienced greater dyadic mutuality at 6 months (caregiving history), when mothers’ had more secure attachment representations (fostering children’s secure base behavior; general caregiving environment), and when children were encouraged to seek parent support for coping (general caregiving environment). Links between COVID-19 stress and children’s internalizing and sleep problems were significantly weaker among families with greater connection and stability during the pandemic (COVID-19 caregiving environment). Preliminary data indicate that when discussing children’s biggest pandemic challenge, the link between COVID-19 stress and children’s externalizing problems was weaker when mothers were more (r=-.15) v. less (r=.47) elaborative and used more (r=-.09) v. fewer (r=.55) negative emotion words—promoting understanding of difficult experiences (COVID-19 caregiving environment).

Findings highlight the broad negative impact of COVID-19 stress on young children’s adjustment. Factors from children’s developmental history, general caregiving environment, and COVID-19 caregiving environment involving use of caregivers for coping with challenge mitigated the impact of COVID-19 stress on children’s externalizing problems. Family practices that foster connectedness and stability during the pandemic were effective in reducing the impact of COVID-19 stress on children’s internalizing and sleep problems.

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