Behavioral, Affective, and Cognitive Parenting Mechanisms of Child Internalizing and Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased mental health concerns, including depression and anxiety among parents and internalizing and externalizing problems among youth. To better understand the mechanisms and moderators of child mental health during the pandemic, the current study tested two moderated mediation models in which parent depression and anxiety indirectly impacted child internalizing and externalizing problems through negative effects on multiple parenting variables, with these associations moderated by families’ exposure to COVID-19-stressors. A national sample representative of U.S. parents ( N = 796, 48.2% female, M age = 38.87 years, 60.3% Non-Hispanic white, 18.1% Hispanic/Latinx, 13.2% Non-Hispanic Black/African-American, 5.7% Asian, 2.8% Other Race) completed a cross-sectional online survey in February-April 2021. Children ranged from 5–16 years old ( M age = 10.35 years, 59.8% Non-Hispanic white, 17.2% Hispanic/Latinx, 13.7% Non-Hispanic Black/African-American, 4.5% Asian, 4.8% Other Race). Parent depression/anxiety was directly and indirectly associated with child internalizing and externalizing problems. For both internalizing and externalizing problems, indirect associations occurred by means of increased parent hostility and inconsistent discipline and decreased routines and parent supportiveness. There were also specific indirect effects through decreased monitoring (internalizing problems) and parenting self-efficacy (externalizing problems). Multiple indirect effects were moderated by number of COVID-19-stressors experienced. Notably, COVID-19-stressors did not have direct effects on child mental health when other variables were considered. Findings highlight the buffering effects of parents for child mental health, the need to address parent depression/anxiety in child interventions, the utility of existing evidence-based parent interventions during the pandemic, and the need to assess families’ level of exposure to COVID-19-stressors. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10802-022-00920-6.

Socio‐emotional, cognitive, affective disorders and substance use in a sample of students in first‐ and second‐grade high school in Italy: A comparison among students', parents', and teachers' perceptions

“…Here, we point out that, in this study, we did not collect direct data on parents and teacher health and on illnesses suffered in the pandemic period, but recent international research has reported a negative impact of this emergency also on these populations (Fosco et al, 2022; Roos et al, 2021; Russell et al, 2020). Penner et al (2022) found a positive association between COVID‐19 stressors and parental depression/anxiety symptoms: this combination of high COVID‐19 stressors and greater depression/anxiety in parents may have led to a greater frequency of negative parenting (poor supervision, hostility). International literature includes research that shows how the COVID‐19 pandemic also impacted teachers' mental health (Lizana & Lera, 2022), especially those who already had physical and mental health problems prepandemic, higher levels of negative affect and worry and poor life satisfaction, and resilience (Lacomba‐Trejo et al, 2022).…”

“…Here, we point out that, in this study, we did not collect direct data on parents and teacher health and on illnesses suffered in the pandemic period, but recent international research has reported a negative impact of this emergency also on these populations (Fosco et al, 2022;Roos et al, 2021;Russell et al, 2020). Penner et al (2022) found a positive association between COVID-19 stressors and parental depression/anxiety symptoms: this combination of high COVID-19 stressors and greater depression/ anxiety in parents may have led to a greater frequency of negative parenting (poor supervision, hostility).…”

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic mixed studies review

“…Most of them were quantitative and collected data during the first 7 months of 2020 (Liang et al, 2020;Morelli et al, 2020Morelli et al, , 2022Petrocchi et al, 2020;Andrés-Romero et al, 2021;Bate et al, 2021;Cellini et al, 2021;Li and Zhou, 2021;Liu et al, 2021Liu et al, , 2022Mariani Wigley et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2021a,b,c;Dodd et al, 2022;Lionetti et al, 2022;Martiny et al, 2022;Oliveira et al, 2022;Ravens-Sieberer et al, 2022), as did the qualitative studies (Idoiaga et al, 2020;Cortés-García et al, 2021). One quantitative study (Penner et al, 2022) collected data during the first months of 2021 (February-April) Most of the papers applied a cross-sectional quantitative study design (n = 27); three collected longitudinal quantitative data. All three qualitative studies were cross-sectional.…”

A U.S. National Study of Family Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Of 2207 individuals who consented, 1411 were excluded based on exclusion criteria, resulting in 796 in the final sample. See Penner et al, 2022 for more details on recruitment.…”