Abstract
The lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has had adverse psychological effects on children and parents. While parenting is essential for positive development, increased parental distress has interfered with children’s wellbeing. In our study, we aimed to identify the predictors of parental distress in families of children with neuropsychiatric disorders during lockdown. Seventy-seven parents of children with neuropsychiatric disorders were asked to fill three online questionnaires (a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Parental-Stress-Index (PSI-4-SF) to explore the relationship between parental distress, emotional/behavioral problems in children and quarantine-related factors through univariate analyses and multiple mediation models. Significant positive associations between CBCL-internalizing-problems and all PSI-4-SF subscales, and between CBCL-externalizing-problems and “Difficult Child” subscales were found. “Parent–Child Dysfunctional Interaction” subscale and teachers–child relationship quality resulted negatively associated, as well as the “Difficult Child” subscale and peers–child relationship quality. The effect of teachers–child relationship quality on “Parent–Child Dysfunctional Interaction” was mediated by children internalizing problems, while the effect of peers–child relationship quality on “Difficult Child” by the child internalizing/externalizing problems. Internalizing problems in children with neuropsychiatric disorders were among the strongest predictors of parental stress during lockdown, mediating the indirect effects of quarantine-related factors, thus suggesting the importance of their detection during and after emergency situations to provide assistance and reduce parenting pressure.
Highlights
25 (32.47%) internalizing psychiatric disorders, 28 (36.36%) were affected by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 40 (51.95%) presented a language and/or speech sound disorders, 4 (5.19%) children were affected by epilepsy and 8 (10.39%) by cerebral palsy or other motor developmental conditions
Seventeen (22.08%) patients were affected by overt intellectual disability (ID)/developmental delay (DD), while 19 (24.68%)
Forty-seven (61.04%) children were diagnosed with complete autism spectrum disorder (ASD), whereas 13 (16.88%) had a sub-threshold ASD condition or a social communication disorder
Summary
Parenting stress is a psychological reaction that parents may experience when parental expectations are not met or are unsustainable by the parents themselves [1,2]. It is conceptually distinct from other forms of distress that parents might experience, such as, for instance, financial hardships, work stress or negative life events, though stress associated with parental duties and other life stressors are frequently associated [1].
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