In order to reduce the high infection rate of COVID‐19, individuals began to engage in self‐isolation amid a time of uncertainty and worry. Given that social support can be protective against the negative effects of distress on mental and physical health, the lack of support may negatively impact individuals during their self‐isolation. Thus, the current study examined the role of self‐isolation on feelings of stress, the perception and reception of social support, and mental health problems during the COVID‐19 pandemic. A sample of 405 college students were asked to report on the amount of self‐isolation in which they were engaging, worry about COVID‐19, psychological health, and received and perceived social support. Results indicated that when the length of time in self‐isolation was taken into account, perceived social support buffered the connection between worry about COVID‐19 and psychological health. These results indicate that social support, worry about COVID‐19, and self‐isolation may influence individuals’ psychological health during times of stress.

Religiosity has a great effect on how individuals view and live their lives, helping to determine their actions and thoughts. Several reviews have substantiated a positive relationship between religiosity and mental health. Parental religiosity also can be beneficial, as adolescents with religious parents tended to be less likely to engage in risky behaviors. Similarly, late adolescent religiosity has been shown to mediate the relationship between perceived parental religiosity and late adolescent psychological outcomes. The current study expanded upon previous research by examining gender effects of both parents and children when examining how personal religiosity mediates the relationship between perceived parental religiosity and emerging adult internalizing and externalizing problems. A sample of 486 emerging adults completed an online survey where they reported the religiosity of themselves and perceived religiosity of both parents as well as their own internalizing and externalizing problems. Results were consistent with hypotheses and showed that personal religiosity mediated the effect between both maternal and paternal perceived religiosity and externalizing problems for both males and females, but between maternal and paternal religiosity and internalizing problems only for males. Overall, results demonstrated that these indirect effects were conditional based on children's gender, indicating moderated mediation.

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The current study examined the indirect effect of maternal and paternal emotional and physical maltreatment on affective and behavioral symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) through parent-child relationship quality; gender and overall ODD symptoms were examined as moderators. Participants included 2,362 emerging adults who completed questionnaires about parental emotional and physical maltreatment, parent-child relationship quality, and affective and behavioral ODD symptoms. These characteristics were compared across parent and child gender (i.e., maternal and paternal effects as well as male and female differences) as well as participants reporting high and low ODD symptoms. In the low ODD group, indirect effects of emotional maltreatment occurred in all parent-child dyads except the mother-son dyad, whereas in the high ODD group, indirect effects occurred only in the father-son dyad. Indirect effects of physical maltreatment occurred only in the father-son dyad in the low ODD group, and only in the mother-daughter dyad on behavioral ODD symptoms in the high ODD group. The results suggest that specific parent-child gender dyads respond differently, warranting further investigation of gender effects. Moreover, emerging adults in the low ODD symptoms group demonstrated a positive association between parental maltreatment and ODD symptoms and a negative association between parent-child relationship quality and ODD symptoms, whereas those high in the high ODD symptoms group did not demonstrate these associations. That is, emerging adults reporting high ODD symptoms demonstrated no relationship between their ODD symptoms and harsh parenting, suggesting an ineffective coercive process.

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