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Parenting Under Pressure: A mixed-methods study on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on parent-child fear regulation and family life

Wed, April 7, 11:35am to 1:05pm EDT (11:35am to 1:05pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Background: Past studies have noted that parents are an important source of information for children during national crises. For example, after terrorist attacks, children are not only affected by pervasive media coverage, but also by their parent’s fear reactions to such events (Pfefferbaum et al., 2005; Phillips et al., 2003). During the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic, parental fear reactions were shown to lead to greater parent-to-child transmission of threat information, which then mediated children’s own fear levels (Remmerswaal & Muris, 2011). These data fit within a wider body of literature on parent-child regulation, which highlights the central role of the parent in modulating child emotionality (Gunnar & Hostinar, 2015). Importantly, past studies have also shown that the parent-child relationship is associated with parenting stress levels (Mazzeschi et al., 2015), highlighting that the regulatory effects of the parent-child relationship are bidirectional. This study assessed whether parental fear reactions were leading to greater parent-to-child transmission of threat information during the COVID-19 pandemic, and examined the moderating role of the parent-child relationship.

Methods: 377 parent-child dyads from across the globe (but mainly the United States) completed an online survey in April-May 2020. Child and parent fear of virus and illness were assessed using the Fears of Illness and Virus Evaluation (FIVE), sources of information about COVID-19 were assessed using an adapted version of the Sources of Information Questionnaire, child anxiety was assessed using the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS), parenting stress was assessed using a shortened version of the Parental Stress Scale (PSS), parent-child relationship was assessed using a modified version of the Parent Child Relationship Scale (PCRS), and parental buffering behaviors were assessed using the lab-developed Parental Buffering Scale (PBS).

Results: We observed that parent fears of virus and illness were positively associated with child fears of virus and illness. Also, both parent and community sources of COVID-19-related threat information were positively associated with child fears of virus and illness (Figure 1). Moreover, parent threat information (but not community threat information) was a significant partial mediator of the association between parent and child fears of virus and illness. Parental buffering behaviors significantly moderated the effects of community sources of threat information on child fears of virus and illness, whereby higher buffering behaviors were associated with lower child fears, even in high community threat environments. We also saw an increase in parenting stress levels pre- to post-onset of COVID-19, which was negatively associated with the quality of the attachment relationship with their child (Figure 2).

Interpretations: Our current findings suggest that caregivers are an important source of threat information for children and can play a role both in exacerbating and buffering child fear responses. As such, supporting parents during COVID-19 should have a family-wide impact on heightening wellbeing. We also suggest that efforts to mitigate children’s COVID-19-related fears may benefit from reducing the number and intensity of threat sources to which children are exposed.

Authors