Are the Parents Alright? Parental Well-Being After the Pandemic

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 7: Families and Health

Abstract

This paper leverages three waves of data on parental well-being during and since the COVID-19 pandemic using the National Couples’ Health and Time Study. We assess parental depression, loneliness, parent-child relationship stress and general life satisfaction at the height of the pandemic (in 2020-21) and one (2021-22) and five years later (2025). Further, we investigate differences in parental well-being levels and trajectories by parent gender, race-ethnicity, sexual identity, and by the age of the youngest child in the household. Overall, our preliminary results show parental well-being to be remarkably similar now compared to the early months of the pandemic in all well-being outcomes except life satisfaction where we observed substantial detriments over time. In terms of variation by gender, race, and sexual identity, we find baseline level differences: mothers, Black parents, and bisexual parents are worse off. But, we find only a few trajectory differences: Black parents became significantly more depressed over time than White parents. In addition, bisexual parents seemed to have a muted decline in life satisfaction and some alleviation of parent-child stress over time compared to other parents. However, bisexual parents had substantially worse life satisfaction and parental-stress to begin with, so they had more room for improvement than other groups. Those who had school-aged children were less lonely at baseline, but their loneliness grew more over time. These preliminary findings are more consistent with cumulative detriments perspectives of major life disruptions that suggest a long tail to traumas than set-point theories which suggest a return to well-being predispositions.

Authors

• Ann Meier, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

• Hyunjae Kwon, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

• Claire M. Kamp Dush, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

• Katerina Marcoulides, University of Minnesota

• Wendy Diane Manning, Bowling Green State University