Family Function and Child Adjustment Difficulties in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Study

Abstract

To estimate specific proximal and distal effects of COVID-19-related restrictions on families on children’s adjustment problems, we conducted a six-site international study. In total, 2516 parents from Australia, China, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America living with a young child (Mage = 5.77, SD = 1.10, range = 3 to 8 years, 47.9% female) completed an online survey between April and July 2020. The survey included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and family risk factors (parent distress, parent–child conflict, couple conflict, and household chaos) as well as a scale to index COVID-19-related family disruption. Our analyses also included public data on the stringency of national restrictions. Across the six sites, parental responses indicated elevated levels of hyperactivity, conduct, and emotion problems in children from families characterized by heightened levels of parent distress, parent–child conflict, and household chaos. In contrast, increased peer problems were more strongly related to COVID-19-related social disruption and stringency measures. Mediation models demonstrated that associations between COVID-19 social disruption and child difficulties could be explained by parental distress. Taken together, these results suggest that although the experience of the pandemic differed across countries, associations between COVID-19-related family experiences and child adjustment difficulties were similar in their nature and magnitude across six different contexts. Programs to support family resilience could help buffer the impact of the pandemic for two generations.

Time trends in emotional well-being and self-esteem in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Generally, we found that the stringency of social distancing policies was negatively associated with children and adolescents’ emotional well-being and self-esteem, which is in line with previous studies that showed a negative association between the Stringency Index and mental health among adults [ 7 , 8 ] and young children aged 3–8 years [ 25 ]. Our study expands the findings from these previous studies by showing that a negative association exists between the stringency of social distancing policies and self-reported emotional well-being and self-esteem of both children and adolescents.…”

Trajectories and Associations Between Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Household Chaos and Children's Adjustment through the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Four-Wave Longitudinal Study

“…Similarly, a multi-site international study found that increased levels of household chaos were concurrently associated with higher levels of child problem behaviors, specifically, conduct problems, and to a lesser degree with emotion or peer problems (Foley et al, 2021). Cassinat et al (2021) found that higher chaos levels predicted less positive family relationships in families with adolescents.…”

“…The extant research shows that the pandemic adversely affected younger children and that the family environment is an essential factor in this change. For example, one study found an association between the impact of COVID-19 on the family unit (e.g., job loss, health worries) and child behavior problems (Foley et al, 2021). Two studies on preschool children found higher scores for behavioral problems than other pre-pandemic samples and decreased emotional and behavioral functioning between the pre-pandemic period and three weeks after lockdown (Glynn et al, 2021;Specht et al, 2021).…”

“…Maternal depression was found to be related to children's outcomes through different mechanisms (Goodman & Gotlib, 1999) like heritability, exposure to maternal maladaptive behaviors and affect, and exposure to stressful life events (Kiernan & Huerta, 2008;Lovejoy et al, 2000;Priel et al, 2020). In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, recent studies found associations between familial difficulties caused by the pandemic, parental stress and children's behavioral and emotional problems (Foley et al, 2021;Spinelli et al, 2020). For example, parental distress increases the risk of children exhibiting more behavioral and emotional problems (Marchetti et al, 2020;Tso et al, 2020).…”

“…Several studies examined emotional and behavioral problems in children during the COVID-19 pandemic (Foley et al, 2021;Panda et al, 2021;Spinelli et al, 2020;Xie et al, 2020;Yeasmin et al, 2020), but to our knowledge, this is the first study to examine these longitudinally and as they relate to specific stages in social distancing regulations (i.e., lockdowns) during the pandemic. Our first hypothesis was partially supported.…”