Family experiences of ambiguous loss during COVID‐19

Abstract

ObjectiveThe present study provides descriptive results on parents' mental health, ambiguous loss, stress, and parent–child relationship as well as child stress and children's emotion regulation abilities. Additionally, we present initial psychometric results and preliminary regression findings from a quantitative ambiguous loss measure.BackgroundThe COVID‐19 pandemic has led to more than one million deaths in the United States and subsequent mental health difficulties for parents and children.MethodData were collected from 134 participants (MParentAge = 39.1 years; 54.5% women; MChildAge = 9.4 years) in early May 2021. Analyses examined group differences of longitudinal findings over a year‐long period, parents' gender, and financial needs.ResultsModerate levels of COVID‐19–specific stress as well as general stress in both parents and children were found. Women reported higher levels of closeness among the parent–child dyad, and parents whose financial needs were not met reported significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression. A liner regression indicated that 44.3% of the variance in ambiguous loss can be explained by COVID‐19 specific stress and depression.ConclusionIndividuals and families are still experiencing difficulties after the COVID‐19 pandemic, as seen through the descriptives presented. Additionally, ambiguous loss can be predicted by these experiences.ImplicationsLong‐term information about individual and family experiences after a year of the COVID‐19 pandemic highlights important experiences of generalized stress in both parents and children.

The science of families: Nurturing hope, happiness, and health

“…Specific to the collection, the submission of articles included two Lessons From the Field articles (Cherry et al, 2024;Contreras et al, 2023), one mixed method article (Ni et al, 2024), three quantitative articles (Ben Brik et al, 2024;Horton et al, 2024;_ Iplikçi et al, 2023), and three qualitative articles (Cypress & Allred, 2024;Oerther & Papachrisanthou, 2024;Xiao, 2024). Three of the nine articles did not focus specifically on COVID-19: (a) the review article focused on the utility of the Chronic Disease Self-Management Programs (CDSMP; Contreras et al, 2023), (b) a qualitative study on the health and stress of parents with preteens who lived in the rural Ozark Mountains (Oerther & Papachrisanthou, 2024), and (c) an article about building patient and family satisfaction between health-care provider visits in intensive care units (Cypress, & Allred, 2024).…”

“…Three of the nine articles did not focus specifically on COVID-19: (a) the review article focused on the utility of the Chronic Disease Self-Management Programs (CDSMP; Contreras et al, 2023), (b) a qualitative study on the health and stress of parents with preteens who lived in the rural Ozark Mountains (Oerther & Papachrisanthou, 2024), and (c) an article about building patient and family satisfaction between health-care provider visits in intensive care units (Cypress, & Allred, 2024). The authors unpacking issues of COVID-19 focused on (a) the influence of homestay on child behavioral health and parental mental health (Cherry et al, 2024) (Horton et al, 2024); and (e) better parenting during the pandemic (Xiao, 2024). Overall, the meanings attached to health included understanding how to manage mental and physical chronic health, relationship quality or satisfaction, and resilience aspects of ambiguous loss (Boss, 2016).…”