Abstract
We examined US parent and youth perceptions of how life events, both positive and negative, associated with COVID-19 resulted in changes in family and youth functioning. Families (n = 105, 80% white, 48% male, and 87% mothers) completed surveys during the pandemic (May to July 2020) and 3 years prior (for youth ages M = 10.6, SD = 1.17 and M = 13.6, SD = 1.19). Declines in youth, though not parent, report of open family communication, parental support, and family satisfaction were found. Declines were associated with various domains of pandemic-related stress in parent report, though positive life events served as buffers. Pre-pandemic family functioning also predicted pandemic stress. Spillover effects in turn impacted youth functioning. The current findings shed light on how experiences of the pandemic are linked with family functioning and have implications for how to support families during this time.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public and governmental responses have led to rapid and at times drastic changes in the life of the family (e.g., Chung et al, 2020b; Craig & Churchill, 2020; Gambin et al, 2020)
With the far-reaching life events linked with the COVID-19 pandemic (Brooks et al, 2020), the impact of stressors may be amplified by simultaneous direct effects on each family member and the family system at large as well as by indirect influences of these stressors to strain family relationships and functioning
Using a 20% false detection rate and clustering the number of “repeated tests” as the predictors of wave nine outcomes in a model beyond the control variables, we found only one effect that fell from significance to marginal significance in results reported in Figure 3 and no changes for results reported in Figures 1, 4, or 5
Summary
Participants from the BLINDED study (BLINDED) comprised the sample for this longitudinal analysis. Higher mean scores indicated greater child impairment For this and each of the following measures, all items were averaged within time points (wave four or 9) and within respondents (parent or child) to obtain composite scores for analysis. Sample items include “How much can you rely on your parent to really care about you without this changing from time to time” and “How much does your parent give you good advice about how to handle problems that you have?” For both parents and children, item responses ranged from 1 (little or none) to 5 (the most possible) This adapted scale demonstrated satisfactory internal reliability at both waves 4 (α = .82, child report; α = .85, parent report) and 9 (α = .87, child report; α = .78, parent report). Participants indicated how often they regretted the relationship
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