Psychological flexibility and inflexibility as sources of resiliency and risk during a pandemic: Modeling the cascade of COVID-19 stress on family systems with a contextual behavioral science lens

Abstract

Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the historic economic shutdown and stay-at-home efforts to slow its spread have radically impacted the lives of families across the world, completely disrupting routines and challenging them to adjust to new health risks as well as to new work and family demands. The current study applied a contextual behavioral science lens to the spillover hypothesis of Family Systems Theory to develop a multi-stage mechanistic model for how COVID-19 stress could impact family and child functioning and how parents’ psychological flexibility could shape those processes. Methods A total of 742 coparents (71% female; 84% Caucasian, 85% married, M = 41 years old) of children (ages 5–18, M = 9.4 years old, 50% male) completed an online survey from March 27th to the end of April 2020. Results Path analyses highlighted robust links from parent inflexibility to all components of the model, predicting: greater COVID-19 stress, greater coparenting discord and family discord, greater caustic parenting, and greater parent and child distress. Parent flexibility was associated with greater family cohesion, lower family discord and greater use of constructive parenting strategies (inductive, democratic/autonomy supportive, positive). Results further suggested that COVID-19 stressors predicted greater family and coparent discord, which in turn predicted greater use of caustic parenting (reactive, inconsistent, aggressive), which in turn predicted greater child and parent distress. Conclusions The current results highlight parental flexibility and inflexibility as key points of intervention for helping families navigate the current global health crisis, highlighting the crucial role they play in the lives of families.

The Psychological State of Teachers During the COVID-19 Crisis: The Challenge of Returning to Face-to-Face Teaching

“…It should also be noted that these professionals had to face a double return to school – both their own and that of their children. Indeed, having a family may have played a role in the increased stress experienced during the pandemic ( Fitzpatrick et al, 2020 ), since managing a family in such times of crisis may bring with it different stresses, such as financial worries, or the additional burdens of parenting, childcare, or the demands of home schooling ( Daks et al, 2020 ).…”

Identifying Rewards Over Difficulties Buffers the Impact of Time in COVID-19 Lockdown for Parents in Australia

“…Being able to identify positive experiences during the major life disruption caused by COVID-19, not just after the event, appears to play an important role in supporting current psychological wellbeing. Further research is needed to understand the specific mechanisms by which some parents are able to perceive rewards and find meaning during adversity, but this may include constructs from positive psychology such as character strengths, values, grit, flow, and optimism (Seligman, 2011) and/or constructs such as psychological flexibility and self-and other-compassion (Coyne et al, 2020;Daks et al, 2020). Although no causality can be inferred from the current data, they do support many of the recent calls for clinicians to support families to develop psychological flexibility through mindfulness and self-compassion practice (Coyne et al, 2020).…”

“…It remains to be seen how the rewards to challenges ratio identified here as a resilience factor for the individual primary caregiving parent is reflected in relationships across the family system and its impact on child functioning. Early data indicate that caregiver burden through COVID-19 impacts parent-child closeness and conflict (Russell et al, 2020), and that psychological inflexibility predicts more caustic parenting and greater child distress (Daks et al, 2020). This area warrants further investigation with longitudinal studies, given that a better understanding of this coping approach offers opportunities for early intervention.…”

“…Potential beneficial consequences of the lockdown include opportunities for stress-related growth and development by individuals and in family relationships (Fegert et al, 2020). In support, Daks et al (2020) found that greater parent psychological flexibility predicts higher family cohesion and lower COVID-19-related stress.…”

The impact of oxidative stress damage induced by the environmental stressors on COVID-19

“…Thereby it is important to provide the psychosocial tools to improve the emotional and social state of the vulnerable population concerning COVID-19. Besides, in the USA, among 742 co-parents, greater stress associated with COVID-19 was reported, predicting greater co-parent and family discord [ 37 ]. The level of stress was inversely proportional to the level of energy among 1003 parents, indicating the psychological inflexibility and flexibility [ 38 ].…”