Poster #108 - Parenting distress, hassles and practices during COVID-19 lockdown and preschoolers’ socioemotional adjustment during reopening phase

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Systemic models of human development and family functioning acknowledge that the accumulation of social disruptions during the first COVID-19 lockdown (e.g., financial strain, health threats, changes in work routines, need to answer children’s educational needs) posed increased demands for caregivers. Family routines, rituals, rules and limits needed to be fully reorganized, resulting in heightened caregivers’ perceived distress and hassless in everyday parent-child interactions that can impact children’s socioemotional adjustment across time (Prime, 2020).
Research has shown that heightened caregivers’ perceived individual and dyadic stress during the first lockdown were associated with children’s negative socioemotional outcomes during the first-wave lockdown phase (Spinelli et al., 2020). The family resilience model establishes that the impact of stressful events may depend on the form of parenting leadership (Walsh, 2015) that can be guided by varying levels of nurturance and restrictiveness. However, the role played by parenting behaviors in the associations between caregivers’ perceived individual distress and hassles in everyday parent-child interactions and children’s socioemotional outcomes during the transition to the reopening phase remains relatively unknown. The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the associations of caregivers’ perceived distress, hassles in everyday parent-child interactions and parenting behaviors during the first wave COVID-19 lockdown with children’s socioemotional outcomes during the reopening phase; and (2) explore the moderating role of parenting behaviors in the associations of caregivers’ perceived distress and parenting hassles with children’s socioemotional outcomes.
One hundred Portuguese mothers of children aged 3-7 years completed the Portuguese versions of the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales, the Parenting Daily Hassles Questionnaire, the Modified Child-Rearing Practices Questionnaire and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to assess perceived individual stress, parenting hassles, parenting practices and children’s socioemotional adjustment during the first-wave lockdown (Time1) and the transition to the reopening phase (Time2).
Controlling for baseline children’s socioemotional adjustment and covariates, preliminary analyses showed that higher perceived stress, depression, and anxiety at Time 1 were associated with increased children’s emotional problems at Time 2; higher hassles intensity in everyday parent-child interactions was associated with increased conduct problems and lower prossocial behaviors at Time2 (Table1). Although lower perceived restrictiveness was associated with higher children’s conduct problems, moderated regressions (Table2) showed that the positive association between maternal anxiety and children’s emotional problems was significant at moderate and high levels of parenting restrictiveness. The negative association between perceived hassles intensity and children’s prossocial behaviors was also significant at moderate and high levels of parenting restrictiveness (Figure3).
Our findings are consistent with the notion that caregivers’ heightened perceived individual distress and parenting hassles in the face of stressful events, like the first COVID-19 lockdown, are associated with distinct children’s negative socioemotional outcomes over time (Prime, 2020). In line with the family resilience model (Walsh et al., 2015), more controlling parenting characterized by the establishment of narrow and strict rules, requirements, and restrictions during the lockdown appeared to exacerbate the negative impact of higher maternal anxiety and hassles during the lockdown in children’s internalizing and relationship difficulties during the transition to the reopening phase.

Authors

• Maryse Guedes, William James Center for Research
  Presenting Author

• Olivia Ribeiro, Instituto Universitário

• Stephanie N Pham, University of Maryland - College Park

• Kelly Smith, University of Maryland, College Park

• Nicholas James Wagner, Boston University

• Kenneth H Rubin, University of Maryland - College Park

• Manuela Veríssimo, ISPA-Instituto Universitário

• António J. Santos, ISPA - Instituto Universitário de Ciências Psicológicas, Sociais e da Vida