Applying a family stress model to understand U.S. families' patterns of stress, media use, and child behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly altered family life, and research among adults and families has found increases financial stress, mental health problems, screen time, parental conflict, and child behavior problems. Given these patterns, we sought to replicate these findings with a younger and largely non-white sample. Using the Family Stress Model, we consider how these constructs might relate to each other during the pandemic. From surveys of 247 predominately Latine mothers and fathers of children under 4 years of age in the U.S., we found that financial strain was related to children's media exposure and use, largely through impacts on parents' mental health and coparenting relationship. Interestingly, only use of television in the background and during mealtimes were associated with increases in parents' perception of increases in children's behavior problems. Such findings better capture how stress may operate in a family system and offer a way to counsel parents about healthier media habits for young children. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Caregivers' Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Children's Behavior.

The COVID-19 pandemic has financial and emotional impacts on families. We explored how caregivers' financial strain and mental health are associated with changes in their young children's behavior during the pandemic. We additionally considered whether having a sense of purpose moderated these associations. Caregivers (n = 300) in the emergency department of a children's hospital were surveyed anonymously about changes to their employment (e.g., reduced/increased hours and job loss), ability to pay for expenses and whether their child's behavior had changed. Aligned with the Family Stress Model, caregivers' financial strain was associated with poor mental health, inconsistent sleep routines, and changes in children's problematic and prosocial behaviors. A sense of purpose buffered some of these relationships. Families are differently affected by the pandemic and our findings underscore the need for supporting caregivers' mental health and connecting them with resources.

Parenting practices and adolescent delinquency: COVID-19 impact in the United States.

Many past studies found parental monitoring and involvement were associated with reductions in delinquency and substance use among adolescents. However, we do not yet fully understand how the COVID-19 crisis affected parenting practices, nor the corresponding effects for juvenile delinquency and substance use. The study incorporated a repeated cross-sectional design with data drawn from two samples of Pennsylvania parents with teenage children. The first sample completed a web survey about parental monitoring in late 2019. The second completed a similar web survey with additional questions about COVID-19 in February 2021. The results indicated little association between COVID-related financial hardship and parental depression, nor between COVID-related financial hardship and parenting practices. While parents reported high levels of depressive symptoms during the pandemic, these appeared largely unrelated to parenting practices. There were few changes in parenting practices, on average, from before to during the pandemic. Most parents reported that their child's behavior had not worsened during the pandemic.

Frontline love: Romantic partners of frontline doctors and nurses during the New York City COVID-19 outbreak.

Objective: This qualitative study's aim was to learn how the spouses and romantic partners of frontline doctors and nurses dealt with the acute stress of the outbreak; the kinds of support they provided when the frontliners had to navigate COVID-19 at their hospitals; and, according to their perceptions, how this crisis impacted their relationship. Background: This study focused on the partners of frontliners working in hospitals during the crisis of the coronavirus outbreak in New York City (NYC)-one of the earliest epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This study expanded upon the Family Stress Model-which examines how economic problems can affect marital quality and stability. Method: Interviews were conducted with 29 partners of frontliners who had been treating COVID-19 patients in NYC hospitals during the pandemic outbreak from February 29 to June 1, 2020. Partners were recruited via snowball sampling, interviewed via Zoom or telephone, and results were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Results: The following themes were found in the narratives: The burden of running the home independently; providing various kinds of support (concrete, emotional, and refraining from sexual and physical closeness); and the effects of the pandemic on the relationship via writing a will and discussing the possibility of death, the lack of relationship-ending threats, and emerging from the crisis with a strengthened relationship. Conclusion: The pandemic crisis unified the partners and frontliners, even in the face of multiple stressors.

Understanding family life during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Objective: Our study investigates how changes in family contexts were associated with child behaviors during Ohio's COVID-19 shutdown of early 2020. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused major economic and social changes for families. Rapid research was conducted to assess these changes and their potential impacts on child behaviors. Method: Using a diverse sample of families with children aged birth to 9 years (N = 559), we describe key economic changes and parent-reported stressors experienced during Ohio's shutdown period. Then, we use regression models to examine how these family conditions were associated with child emotional distress and changes in sleep routines. Results: When parents experienced more total COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors, they also reported that their children exhibited more anxious and withdrawn, fearful, acting out, and COVID-19 pandemic-related behaviors (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Families and children living at home in Ohio experienced significant stress during the shutdown. These findings can be used to inform future studies of the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for parents and children. Implications: Families and children have experienced multiple stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers and practitioners should continue to monitor and support families and children to mitigate potential lasting consequences.

Changes in Parents' Home Learning Activities With Their Children During the COVID-19 Lockdown - The Role of Parental Stress, Parents' Self-Efficacy and Social Support.

As a result of the abrupt closures of daycare centers in Germany due to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents' ability to provide learning opportunities at home became all the more important. Building on the family stress model, the study investigates how parental stress affected changes in parents' provision of home learning activities (HLA) during the lockdown, compared to before the lockdown. In addition, the study considers parental self-efficacy and perceived social support as protective factors that may play important roles in disrupting the negative effects of stress. Data stems from a nation-wide survey of 7,837 German parents of children ages 1-6 years, which was conducted in Spring 2020 during the first wave of COVID-19 infections and at a time of strict restrictions in Germany. Results revealed that parental stress was negatively related to changes in the provision of HLA. Parental self-efficacy and an intact social support system were protective of parental stress during the lockdown. Additionally, parental self-efficacy and - to a larger extend - perceived social support interacted with parental stress in the relation to changes in the provision of HLA. Specifically, self-efficacy and perceived social support acted as protective factors that buffered the negative influence of stress on parents' ability to provide educational activities for their children at home. These results have important implications for supporting families with young children during challenging times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the temporary closure of daycare centers.