Parenting in a Pandemic: Parental Stress During the Physical Distancing Intervention Following the onset of the COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

Objective: The main aim of the study was to examine levels of parental stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety in the general parental population (N = 2868) during the strict government-initiated physical distancing protocols following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We further investigated specific predictors of parental distress, including burnout, anger aimed at children, worry, lack of social support, lower perceived self-efficacy, and difficulty to work from home.Method: In this cross-sectional, epidemiological study, we disseminate an online survey that was administered two weeks after the government-initiated physical distancing protocols were established. Data were collected from March 31 to April 7. Results: Female parents compared to male parents and parents living with more than one child per parent or child(ren) with special needs compared to those living with one or fewer children per parent reported higher levels of parental stress. Burnout and social support were further associated with parental stress. Specifically, nearly one-fourth of the parents reported that they have felt burned out or in the proximity of feeling burned out more than half the days during the social distancing interventions. Also, 29% of the parents reported that they were angrier at their child(ren) than usual during the physical distancing period.Parents with a pre-existing psychiatric diagnosis had significantly higher parental stress compared to individuals with no psychiatric diagnosis. The reported prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms above standardized cutoff levels among the 2868 parents was 25.4% for depression and 24.1% for anxiety, with the highest prevalence score on both symptoms of anxiety (37.6%) and depression (38.5%) for the youngest parents (age group 21–30 years). Furthermore, the parents who were home with their children and predominantly followed distancing protocol by socially distancing from public activity and peers (i.e., at least 10 out of 14 days) had significantly higher symptoms of depression (29%) and anxiety (27%), compared to parents who did not isolate in the same manner (i.e., depression 13% and anxiety 15%). Conclusions: The present study reveals that home confinement during the restricted lockdown period is related to markedly high levels of parental stress, in addition to symptoms of depression and anxiety in parents. Given the detrimental effects of depression, anxiety, and parental stress on the quality of life, morbidity rates, as well as adverse child outcomes and the potential risk of child abuse and neglect, these results suggest that appropriate action should be taken to impede further development of these symptoms, as well as developing interventions aimed at vulnerable subgroups and other relevant factors associated with increased parental stress. Keywords: COVID-19 lockdown, parental stress, depression, anxiety

Feelings of worthlessness links depressive symptoms and parental stress: A network analysis during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…All analysed subgroups were however richly represented in the dataset given the number of participants (e.g., 587 males), and an adjusted post-stratified and weighted sample have revealed identical results on the same group of participants in a previous study, see Johnson et al. [6]. Demographic information is provided in Table 1.…”

“…In addition, the survey was distributed to a random selection of Norwegian adults through a Facebook Business algorithm, thus ensuring that a representative sample of parents was invited to partake in the study. Further details about the data collection can be found elsewhere [ 6 ]. There were no data missing as participants were prompted to complete skipped items, if any.…”

“…As infection and death rates increased and citizens sheltered at home during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, the general population have experienced elevated psychological distress (e.g., [1][2][3][4]). Research on the parental population have outlined high prevalence of clinically significant levels of depression compared to prepandemic levels [5,6] in addition to heightened parental stress [6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Previous findings have discovered that stress related to being a parent is associated with depressive symptoms in mothers and fathers during non-pandemic periods [17][18][19][20] and during the ongoing pandemic (e.g., [6,7]). Studies, mainly on mothers with depression, have indicated that parental stress is elevated in mothers with depression compared to those without [12].…”

“…Depressive symptoms and parental stress are serious mental health states that may reduce parents’ abilities to support and connect to their children’s mental development, putting the offspring at increased risk of experiencing a range of mental disorders (e.g., [ 16 ]). Previous findings have discovered that stress related to being a parent is associated with depressive symptoms in mothers and fathers during nonpandemic periods [ 17 – 20 ] and during the ongoing pandemic (e.g., [ 6 , 7 ]). Studies, mainly on mothers with depression, have indicated that parental stress is elevated in mothers with depression compared to those without [ 12 ].…”