The Effect of COVID-19 Stress on Maternal Affect Regulation: Risk Factor for Adolescent Mental Health

• In Event: Risk and Resiliency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health During COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have resulted in increased mental health problems for both parents (Spinelli et al., 2020) and adolescents (Craig et al., 2020). These problems are compounded by parental stress from COVID-19, such as concerns about health, social isolation, and family stress due to stay-at-home orders and school closures (Campbell, 2020). Parental stress has been found to mediate parent’s perception of difficulty during COVID-19 and increased mental health problems in children under age 14 (Spinelli et al., 2020), however, relatively few studies have examined the role of parental COVID-19 stress and adolescent mental health. Increased levels of stress may inhibit a parent’s ability to regulate their affect resulting in affect dysregulation. As youth’s ability to regulate their affect relies on regulation within the parent-child relationship, increased dysregulation in a parent may increase youth’s affect dysregulation. Depressive and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms (ODD) have been previously linked to affect dysregulation (Moretti & Craig, 2013, Craig et al., 2020). This is particularly concerning given both depressive and ODD symptoms have been found to be higher than average during COVID-19 (Craig et al., 2020). The purpose of the current study is to examine whether parental COVID-19 stress is a significant risk factor for youth’s depressive and ODD symptoms through its impact on parent’s affect regulation and subsequent youth affect dysregulation.

Method: Participants were parents of Canadian adolescents (age 12-18). Fathers were excluded due to small sample size (n =29). Mothers (N = 541; Mage = 45.15, SD = 5.77) completed measures of youth depressive and oppositional symptoms (OCHS), Maternal COVID-19 Stress (e.g., Health, family stress; COVID-19 Stress Scale), and child and parent affect dysregulation (ARC).

Results. Using SPSS 27.0, Maternal COVID-19 stress was found to be directly related to depressive (r = .32, p < .001) and ODD symptom (r = .22, p < .001). Using the Process macro (Hayes, 2017) and controlling for parent and youth age, and youth gender the association between maternal COVID-19 stress and youth’s depressive and ODD symptoms was partially mediated through parent and child affect regulation controlling for parent and youth age, and youth gender (Figure 1 and 2). Maternal COVID stress had a significant indirect effect on youth depressive symptoms (β = .06, CI [95%] = .04, .08) and ODD symptoms (β = .08, CI (95%) = .05, .11).

Discussion: Increased stress on parents, such as concerns about their own and others’ health, family stress due to confinement, and loss of social support, is having a significant impact on youth’s mental health. Results from the current study suggest that COVID-19 stress is related to a maternal affect dysregulation which is associated with their youth’s affect dysregulation and subsequent mental health problems. These results suggest that intervening with parent’s affect regulation may have a significant impact on reducing the risk for youth mental health for both internalizing and externalizing problems.

Author

• Stephanie G. Craig, York University
  Presenting Author