Poster #135 - Coparenting: Possible explanatory mechanism between pandemic-related stress and children’s psychological symptoms

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

The coparenting relationship is considered the executive subsystem within the family linking other subsystems together (Feinberg, 2003). As such, the coparenting relationship is thought to influence individual-level child adjustment (Majandzic et al., 2012; Peltz et al., 2021). Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, research has found declines in the quality of coparenting relationships and increases in child internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Gagne et al., 2021). Also, changes in coparenting have been found to be specifically related to pandemic-related stress (Peltz et al., 2021). Therefore, it is possible declines in coparenting quality associated with pandemic-related stress lead to increases in child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Thus, the present study investigates the potential indirect association between pandemic-related stress and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms through positive coparenting.
Data were collected online from 210 mothers of school-aged children in kindergarten through 6th grade who identified having a coparent in the home (Mage = 37.8; 81% White; 7.6% Black; 6.2% Asian; 5.3% other). Participants completed a 22-item Pandemic Survey, a measure created for this study, at Time 1 (T1; April 2020), which covered three aspects of pandemic-related stress: financial stress, home disruption, health fears. At Time 2 (T2; 4 weeks after T1), participants completed the Coparenting Questionnaire, which has three subscales: coparenting cooperation, conflict, and triangulation (Margolin et al., 2001). At Time 3 (T3; 8 weeks after T1), participants completed the Behavior and Feelings Survey (Weisz et al., 2019), which assessed child internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations among variables are presented in Table 1. A structural equation model testing the research question (see Figure 1) was run using the lavaan package within RStudio (Rosseel, 2012; Rstudio Team, 2015). Latent variables of pandemic-related stress (i.e., using three indicators of financial stress, home disruption stress, and health fears) and positive coparenting (using three indicators of coparenting cooperation, conflict, and triangulation) were used. Child internalizing and externalizing symptoms were both single indicator variables. Full information maximum likelihood estimation was used to account for missing data. The model demonstrated good fit: χ2 (22) = 36.09, p = .03; TLI = .91; CFI = .94; RMSEA = 0.05 (see Figure 1). T1 pandemic-related stress was negatively associated with T2 positive coparenting. T2 positive coparenting was significantly negatively associated with T3 child externalizing symptoms and marginally positively associated with T3 child internalizing symptoms. Further, the indirect pathway through positive coparenting between pandemic-related stress and child externalizing symptoms was significant ( = .12, 95% CI [0.03, 1.17]); however, the same indirect pathway to child internalizing symptoms was not significant ( = 0.06, 95% CI [-0.04, 0.35]). Further, in the model pandemic-related stress was marginally positively associated with internalizing, but not externalizing, symptoms. Findings further support the role the coparenting relationship plays in associations between parents’ adjustment and child adjustment, especially in relation to the stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authors

• Jill R. Caradec, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author

• Joanna N. Keane, Northern Illinois University

• Laura D Pittman, Northern Illinois University

• David J Bridgett, Northern Illinois University

• Elizabeth C. Shelleby, Northern Illinois University