Abstract
Previous literature on the psychological impact of COVID-19 has shown a direct relationship between family conflicts and psychological distress among parents and their children during the domestic lockdown and social isolation; but there are also opportunities to enhance family bonding, encourage collective problem-solving and improve personal relationships. This study aimed to explore psychological adjustment processes of Spanish adolescents and their parents during the first month of lockdown by analyzing their narratives, perceived outcomes, protection and risk factors. A total of 142 people agreed to participate in this study. Of all participants, 61 were adolescents (M = 13.57; SD = 1.74; 57% women) and 81 were parents (M = 46.09; SD = 4.72; 91% mothers). All were Spanish residents and completed an online survey during the domestic lockdown in March 2020. From a qualitative design, methodology followed a mixed approach to analyze data. The results showed three different types of adaptation to lockdown and social isolation in both adolescents and their parents: 1) positive adjustment, 2) moderate adjustment, and 3) maladjustment. Most participants reported a good adjustment and only a 20% of parents and a 16% of adolescents stated that they had not been able to achieve a positive psychological adjustment. There are few significant quantitative differences between adolescents and their parents. The qualitative analysis of data showed that adolescents reported less psychological distress than their parents. The two most important protective factors were social support and keeping busy during lockdown. The most significant risk factors were loss of mobility and social isolation. The conclusions stressed that regarding psychological maladjustment, parents experienced feelings of uncertainty whereas adolescents experienced a kind of mourning process. These findings can be used to design and implement effective intervention measures for mental health and psychological well-being in such a difficult situation as domestic lockdown.
Highlights
The rapid and unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a global pandemic [1] causing a disruption of the economic and health system around the world
The participants’ narratives regarding the aspects that are helping or hindering them to adapt to the domestic lockdown and social isolation are similar between adolescents and adults, and can be described through the same basic categories, making possible to carry out comparisons of proportions between both groups (Table 1) that are explained below
The outbreak and rapid spread of COVID-19 has changed the way of life of millions of people around the world
Summary
The rapid and unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a global pandemic [1] causing a disruption of the economic and health system around the world. In the second two-week period, restrictions were tightened and non-essential work activities were suspended [3]. This unusual situation has resulted in the increase of various psychological problems such as depressive or post-traumatic stress symptoms, insomnia, irritability, anxiety, and feelings of loneliness [3,4,5,6,7,8]. Simple coping behaviors such as keeping a healthy diet, following a daily routine, giving up on watching the news or updates on COVID-19 frequently, enjoying personal hobbies and staying outdoors or looking outside the window have been found to be the best predictors of low levels of anxious and depressive symptoms in Spanish adults [9]
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