Poster #44 - Family Hardiness and Parent Depression for Frontline Workers in the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Poster Session 03

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic affected many aspects of the lives of Americans with notable impacts on mental health. Depression rates in U.S. adults soared by three-fold during the peak of COVID-19 compared to the onset (Ettman, 2020). In their frontline roles, healthcare professionals (HCPs) reported significantly more depression than their non-HCP counterparts (Pearman et al., 2020). Depression in parents generally has been associated with numerous negative consequences for family systems, including marital problems and poor child adjustment (Cummings et al., 2005). Many frontline healthcare professionals facing COVID-19 also were parenting children, and little is known about the unique experiences of family functioning for parents who were frontline healthcare professionals (HCP).
A sample of healthcare professionals (HCP) was recruited from the CHAMPS registry (Kaufmann et al., 2021) who were also parents of children between the ages of 9-18 years (n=70). While some participants had more than one child within the age ranges, 56.3% had at least one child between the ages of 9-12, and 58.8% had at least one child between the ages of 13-17. All participants in this subsample of the larger CHAMPS data were nurses and identified as women. A small portion were single parents (18.8%). A notable portion reported an annual household income of more than $150,000 (42.5%) and only 7.7% reported an annual household income less than $80,000.
In an online survey, participants responded to the 10 item Impact Subscale of the CEFIS (Kazak et al., 2021) which asked questions like: "How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected how family members get along with each other?" Participants also completed the Family Hardiness Index (FHI; McCubbin et al., 1986). The 8-item FHI Commitment subscale assessed internal strengths, dependability, and ability to work together with items like: “In our family we have a sense of being strong even when we face big problems.” Participants responded to the CES-D Short Form, a 10-item form that measures the frequency of depressive symptoms in the past week (Andresen, et al., 1994).
In a regression model with depression and COVID-19 impact predicting family hardiness, there was a main effect of depression, β=-.5, p<.001, but no significant effect of COVID-19 impact, β=.14, p=.22. We found a significant interaction between depression and COVID-19 impact on family hardiness, β=-.27, p=.01, explaining an additional 6.7% of variance in family hardiness, p=.012. When caregivers reported high levels of depression, there was a stronger negative association between COVID-19 impact and family hardiness. The frontline families who had high COVID-19 impact but low parent depression showed resilience in family functioning. However, for parental HCPs with high levels of depression, high COVID-19 impact was associated with the lowest levels of family hardiness. Thus, parent depression emerged as a key factor for adjustment of frontline worker families to the stressors of COVID-19.

Authors

• Abigail C. Knight, Villanova University
  Presenting Author

• Janette E. Herbers, Villanova University

• Michelle M. McKay

• Michelle Kelly

• Amy McKeever

• Linda Copel

• Christine Pariseault