Abstract
The quality of life (QoL) might have been decreased owing to social disruptions in daily life and basic functioning after the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This work aims to examine the relationship between job changes, family conflicts, and QoL among parents during COVID-19 in China. We recruited 1,209 adults through an online cross-sectional survey in China during the COVID-19 lockdown from April 21 to April 28, 2020. Convenient and cluster sampling methods were used to recruit parents. The global health items in the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) were used as a measurement for QoL. Data were mainly analyzed by multiple linear regression with SPSS. Both marital conflict (β = −0.243, p < 0.001) and parent–child conflict (β = −0.119, p = 0.001) were negatively associated with the QoL among parents during the lockdown. Job changes moderated the relationship between marital conflict and QoL (β = −0.256, p = 0.022). In addition, the interaction effects of job changes and family conflict on QoL were significant only among fathers and one-child families. This study indicated that family conflict was a crucial factor correlated with QoL among young parents in the backdrop of the COVID-19 lockdown. Job changes could interact with marital conflict and parent–child conflict on the quality of life.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), which emerged in Wuhan, China, has reached the level of a pandemic, attracting enormous concern from around the world [1]
Our results indicated that parents who experienced marital conflict and parent–child conflict reported a lower level of quality of life (QoL)
This study indicates that family conflict is an important factor related to QoL among younger Chinese parents
Summary
Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), which emerged in Wuhan, China, has reached the level of a pandemic, attracting enormous concern from around the world [1]. Several countries took drastic mitigation measures, including community-wide lockdowns, home quarantines, closure of schools, working-from-home, and social distancing to protect the population [2] These swift actions have created a host of new challenges that have brought profound changes and affected the normal routines of daily work and lifestyles for people, such as restricting outdoor activities or increasing family conflicts, reducing income, high rates of unemployment [3], and worsening the quality of life (QoL) [4]. Parents with young children may have more childcare responsibilities at home due to the reduced social network and the swift closure of schools and childcare centers [7] They had to balance remote working with home-schooling their children and confront more work–family conflict [8]. In this difficult time, more attention is required to the younger parents’ QoL
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