Families and Youth in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining Mental Health and Recreation

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many aspects of life for people around the world, and the impacts of social distancing measures, lockdowns, and online work and schooling on families are important to understand. The pandemic has negatively impacted mental health (Orgilés et al., 2020) and constrained recreation activities (Rice et al., 2020), which are interrelated as engaging in recreation supports mental health (Fenton et al., 2016). This time may be particularly challenging for adolescents and their parents, given the importance of peers in adolescence and the increased time families are spending at home (Ettekal & Agans, 2020). This symposium will therefore discuss the ways in which families are navigating the pandemic and its interrelated impact on parent and adolescent mental health and recreation activities.

The papers in this symposium will each consider these issues from slightly different perspectives. The first paper will focus on mental health, using longitudinal dyadic data to examine coregulation of internalizing symptoms among parents and adolescents during the pandemic. The second paper will connect mental health with outdoor recreation, assessing the extent to which pandemic-related changes in parent and adolescent outdoor time and family leisure are associated with depressive symptoms. The third paper will focus on recreation, youth sport in particular, exploring parents’ perceptions of the impact of the removal of youth sport due to the COVID19 pandemic on their family. The discussant will provide insights on the implications of these studies for families, drawing on a positive youth development perspective.

Sub Unit

• Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Chair

• Sunhye Bai, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Discussant

• Andrea Vest Ettekal, Texas A&M University - College Station

Individual Presentations

• Parent-Adolescent Coregulation of Internalizing Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Presenting Author: Evelyn Mercado, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Non-Presenting Author: Marielena Barbieri, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Non-Presenting Author: Se Min Suh, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

• Depressive Symptoms and Outdoor Leisure during COVID-19 in Parent-Youth Dyads - Presenting Author: Jennifer P Agans, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Non-Presenting Author: Sunhye Bai, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Youth Sports and COVID19: Parents’ Current Experiences and Hopes for their Child’s Return to Play - Presenting Author: Emily Wright, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Liam O'Neil, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Scott Pierce, Illinois State University; Non-Presenting Author: Meredith Wekesser, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Alysha Matthews, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Jill Kochanek, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Adam Kelly, Birmingham City University; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Turnnidge, Queens University; Non-Presenting Author: Karl Erickson, Michigan State University