Patterns of Change in Mothers’ Behavior toward Children During COVID-19: Parental Burnout as Predictors

• In Event: Family Processes Involving Parental Mental Health During COVID-19: Associations with Child Well-being

Abstract

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 70% of U.S. parents reported that they experienced higher stress related to their parenting role compared to before the pandemic, and about half of the parents continued to experience heightened parenting stress a few months later (Adams et al., 2021). This heightened parenting stress is concerning because chronic exposure to parenting stress puts parents at risk for experiencing burnout in one’s parental role (Roskam et al., 2018), which is associated with a host of negative outcomes for parents and children (Mikolajczak et al., 2019). One possible antecedent to parental burnout may be intensive mothering, which is the belief that ideal child-rearing should be child-centered, time-consuming, and resource-intensive (Hays, 1996). Trying to fulfill the demanding expectations of intensive mothering could lead to increased stress and feelings of parental burnout, which in turn may lead to increased use of harsh parenting behaviors (Mikolajczak et al., 2019). The current study investigates longitudinal associations between intensive mothering, parental burnout, and self-reported changes in mothers’ parenting behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three waves of data were collected each in April 2020, December 2020/January 2021, and June 2021. Across all three waves, a total of 282 mothers (Mage=37.2 years, SD=6.0; 84.4% White), with at least one child 12 years or younger were analyzed. About three-fourths of mothers (71.3%) reported their annual household income as being higher than $70,000 a year, but 27% of the mothers received at least one public assistance program. The survey included measures assessing mothers' mental health, endorsement of intensive mothering beliefs, and parental burnout. In addition, mothers self-reported changes in six parenting behaviors toward children: yelling at children, comforting or soothing, conflicts with children, praise or rewards, discipline (e.g., time out, grounding, removing a privilege), spanking or hitting, and ignoring or being distant.

Latent class analysis revealed three different patterns of self-reported changes in parenting behaviors: 1) Increased Negative Behaviors, 2) Increased Positive Behaviors, and 3) No Increases. Mothers in Increased Negative Behaviors (36% of the sample) had higher probabilities of reporting increased use of negative behaviors. Mothers in Increased Positive Behaviors (25% of the sample) were characterized by higher probabilities of reporting increased use of positive behaviors. Mothers in No Increase class (39%) had the lowest probabilities of practicing the six behaviors more than usual during the pandemic. Mothers who reported higher levels of parental burnout were about two folds more likely to be in the Increased Negative Behavior compared to No Increase (OR=1.87, 95% CI[1.35, 2.58]). Also, mothers who endorsed intensive mothering beliefs to a greater degree were more likely to be in the Increased Negative Behavior compared to No Increase (OR=1.37, 95% CI[1.07, 3.14]).

This study demonstrates that both feelings of burnout and subscribing to intensive mothering beliefs increased the likelihood of engaging in greater negative parenting behaviors during the pandemic. Together, these findings highlight the importance of supporting mothers’ emotional experiences related to parenting beliefs for improving parenting behaviors and for reducing the risk of child maltreatment.

Authors

• Christina N Kim, NYU Grossman school of medicine
  Presenting Author

• Margaret L. Kerr, University of Wisconsin - Madison