Poster #145 - Caregivers' Psychological Distress During COVID-19: Correlates and Relations With Caregivers' Engagement in Early Education

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Background:
While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the general public has been widely documented (WHO, 2022), it may cause even greater harm to the mental health of particular populations, such as caregivers of young children (Fong et al., 2021). Due to the pandemic, many caregivers are facing job loss, food shortage, and threats of coronavirus infections (Chu et al., 2020). These hardships may jointly affect caregivers’ mental health from the cumulative risk perspective (Evans & Whipple, 2013) and cause a higher level of psychological distress than before. Hence, it is important to understand mental health and its correlates among the caregivers of young children during the pandemic. Although there has been a great deal of research on the severity of individual psychological distress during the pandemic (e.g., Chu et al., 2020; WHO, 2022), only a limited number of studies have explored the factors affecting (e.g., Davidson et al., 2021; Zhang, 2022), or affected by, caregivers’ psychological distress (e.g., Hornby & Lafaele, 2011; Xu et al., 2021). Among these studies, researchers have examined only one or a few indicators of psychological distress, while a thorough examination of the precursors and outcomes of multiple psychological distress symptoms using an integral model is lacking. Moreover, no study to date has investigated such relationships among caregivers of young children.
Aims:
This study investigated the familial and individual antecedents and childrearing outcomes of psychological distress (depression, anxiety, worry, and loneliness) among Chinese caregivers of preschool children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Method:
A sample of 504 caregivers of preschoolers in Zhengzhou, China participated. They reported their familial (marital status, the child's sex and age, family size, family income in 2019, and the occupation and education level of the child's mother and father, household chaos, changes in family income, and physical health of the family) and individual characteristics (resilience), psychological distress (worry, depression, anxiety, and loneliness), and childrearing practices (caregivers' home-based involvement in children’s education and changes in amount of time caregivers spent engaging with children). Data collection was conducted in June and July, 2020.
Results:
The results showed that both familial (family socioeconomic status, changes in family income during the pandemic, family physical health, and household chaos) and individual (resilience) factors were related to caregivers’ symptoms of psychological distress. Loneliness was negatively related to caregivers' involvement in children's education, and feelings of worry were positively associated with increases in the caregivers’ time spent engaging with children indoors (e.g., helping children with homework and disciplining children).
Conclusion:
Both family characteristics and caregivers’ own resilience showed significant relationships with caregivers’ psychological distress symptoms during the pandemic. Meanwhile, these psychological distress symptoms were related to caregivers’ engagement in their children’s education. The findings underscore the significance of identifying the risk factors of caregivers' psychological distress during the pandemic. They also have important implications for the design of caregiver- and family-based interventions to alleviate the adverse effects of the pandemic on caregivers' psychological distress and childrearing practices.

Authors

• Aining Peng, The University of Hong Kong

• Hao Li, University of Hong Kong (HKU)
  Presenting Author

• Xiao Zhang, The University of Hong Kong