Adults experienced an increase in mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on strong research evidence from meta-analyses (Newby et al., 2020; Salari et al., 2020). Around the world, adults faced a range of pandemic-related stressors, including loss of employment, economic uncertainty, and social isolation. Parents specifically faced unique challenges, such as homeschooling, children’s social isolation, and parent-child conflict (Patrick et al., 2020; Thomson et al., 2023). A number of studies have provided evidence that mental health issues are associated with maladaptive parenting (Breaux et al., 2016; Duncombe et al., 2012; Infante-Cañete et al., 2022; Nelson et al., 2014). Despite the rapid increase in pandemic-related literature in recent years, there has been limited longitudinal literature examining whether pre-pandemic parent mental health is associated with parenting practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent child mental health outcomes. The current study draws on three waves of longitudinal data, aiming to: 1) investigate associations between pre-existing parent mental health issues (2019) with long-term child mental health issues (2021), via changes in emotion-related parenting practices during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020); and 2) test whether COVID-19 pandemic-related environmental stressors during 2020 and 2021 (e.g., loss of employment) exacerbated associations between emotion-related parenting practices and child mental health problems.
Pre-Pandemic Associations Between Parent Mental Health and Child Mental Health
Using data collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of studies have reported that children of parents experiencing mental health issues are at greater risk for mental health issues themselves. A meta-analysis and systematic review (N = 8,257) found that children of parents with an anxiety disorder were at an increased risk for anxiety and depression symptoms, compared to children of parents without an anxiety disorder (Lawrence et al., 2019; Micco et al., 2009). Similarly, a longitudinal cohort study of Australian children (N = 69,116) entering the first year of primary school (i.e., aged 5 years) found that children that have at least one parent with a diagnosed mental health disorder experienced higher levels of externalizing behavioral problems (Dean et al., 2018). It should be noted that research to-date has underrepresented fathers. A large body of literature has found maternal depression and anxiety symptoms are associated with children’s mental health issues (Goodman et al., 2011; Herba et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2017; Madigan et al., 2018; Rogers et al., 2020). There is emerging evidence of links between paternal depression and children’s mental health issues (Fletcher et al., 2011; Kane & Garber, 2004; Ramchandani et al., 2008).
Parent Emotion Socialization and Child Mental Health
Children’s emotion development and mental health is shaped by parents’ emotion socialization, i.e., the process by which children learn culturally relevant beliefs and behaviors related to emotion competence and expression via everyday social interactions within their environment (Bugental & Goodnow, 1998; Friedlmeier et al., 2011). A key dimension of parents’ emotion socialization is their emotion-related parenting practices, which refers to parenting behaviors that directly teach children about emotions, such as parents’ discussion and labelling of emotions (Eisenberg et al., 1998; Gottman et al., 1996; Wong et al., 2009). According to Gottman et al.’s (1996) theoretical framework, ‘Meta-Emotion Theory’, emotion-related parenting practices can be classified as either emotion coaching parenting practices or emotion dismissing parenting practices. Emotion coaching parenting practices are characterized by parents’ acceptance and encouragement of children’s emotions, validation, and teaching children adaptive emotion regulation skills (Eisenberg et al., 1998; Fabes et al., 2002; Gottman et al., 1996). Emotion dismissing parenting practices are characterized by parents’ minimization and invalidation of children’s emotions, ignoring or avoiding children’s negative emotions (Eisenberg et al., 1998; Fabes et al., 2002; Gottman et al., 1996).
An underlying mechanism that likely links parents’ mental health to children’s mental health outcomes is parents’ emotion-related parenting practices. Moderate-to-strong evidence from both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies supports that emotion coaching parenting is associated with lower levels of children’s internalizing problems, externalizing problems, depression and anxiety symptoms (Meyer et al., 2014; Perry et al., 2020; Rogers et al., 2016; Wong et al., 2009). In contrast, emotion dismissing parenting practices are associated with children’s internalizing problems, externalizing problems, depression and anxiety symptoms (De Raeymaecker & Dhar, 2022; Frogley et al., 2023; Johnson et al., 2017; Zinsser et al., 2021). Research has found that parents experiencing mental health issues are less likely to respond to children’s emotions with emotion coaching practices (Brockington et al., 2011; Eisenberg et al., 1998; Elgar et al., 2007).
The COVID-19 Pandemic and Adult Mental Health
Evidence suggests that adults who experienced mental health issues prior to the COVID-19 pandemic were more adversely affected by the pandemic (Fisher et al., 2020; Vindegaard & Benros, 2020). According to a large-scale Australian study (N = 13,829) conducted early in the pandemic, adult mental health issues such as symptoms of depression and anxiety increased during the pandemic (Fisher et al., 2020; Newby et al., 2020). There is also evidence that stressors related to the pandemic exacerbated pre-existing mental health issues, such as loss of employment, and social isolation (Asmundson et al., 2020; Fisher et al., 2020; Newby et al., 2020; Xiong et al., 2020; Zhou et al., 2020). Research suggests that parents in particular were susceptible to mental health issues during the pandemic (Fisher et al., 2020; author et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2020). Researchers from Australia (N = 13,829) and the United Kingdom (N = 53,351) found that compared to the general adult population, adults caring for a dependent child (particularly preschool aged children), were more likely to report mental health issues, including symptoms of anxiety and depression (Fisher et al., 2020) Likewise, research conducted in the US comparing a nationally-representative online sample of adults (N = 2,032) in late April 2020 to participants from a 2018 national health survey (N = 19,330), found parents reported higher levels of mental health issues than adults without children (Twenge & Joiner, 2020). Furthermore, a study of Australian parents found that compared to pre-pandemic data (N = 2,365), parents reported higher levels of depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, stress, and irritability, and lower levels of positive emotion expression in the family (author).
Parenting can be demanding under ordinary circumstances, and the additional stressors parents faced during the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in parents’ symptoms of depression and anxiety (author; Russell et al., 2020). Many parents experienced increased worry about their family’s financial, physical, and mental health during the pandemic, including concerns about employment loss, income loss, their children’s social isolation from peers and teachers, as well as juggling demands of working from home whilst home-schooling and caring for children (Evans et al., 2020; Gassman-Pines et al., 2020; Patrick et al., 2020). Despite the increase in parents’ environmental stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been limited research focused specifically on the pre-pandemic mental health of parents, and how the pandemic may have influenced parents’ emotion-related parenting practices during the pandemic, as well as subsequent child mental health outcomes (Patrick et al., 2020). The additional financial, social, and emotional stressors experienced by parents during the pandemic likely influenced familial functioning within the broader family unit, with consequences for children’s mental health. A cross-sectional study (N = 1049) found that higher levels of parenting distress during lockdowns within Spain in early 2020 was associated with ‘avoidant’ parenting, and lower levels of focused and structured parenting (Romero et al., 2020). While more than 55% of children in the study did not report mental health issues, maladaptive parenting practices were associated with children’s externalizing behavioral problems and internalizing problems (Romero et al., 2020). An umbrella review examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on child mental health (N = 17 systematic reviews) highlights several risk and protective factors for children’s mental health issues (Hossain et al., 2022). Children of parents with higher levels of responsive parenting experienced lower levels of mental health issues (Hossain et al., 2022). On the other hand, children within families experiencing disruptive familial relationships and financial issues experienced higher levels of mental health issues (Hossain et al., 2022). It is important to note that Romero et al. (2020) and Hossain et al. (2022) utilized data collected during the pandemic, with no comparison made to pre-pandemic familial functioning. As such, it is difficult to establish changes over time.
The Present Study
In summary, the COVID-19 pandemic placed families under considerable stress, which may have adversely influenced their emotion-related parenting practices. The current longitudinal study aims to: 1) test associations between parent mental health problems assessed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (2019) and child mental health outcomes assessed two years later during the pandemic (2021); 2) test whether these associations are mediated by parents’ emotion-related practices assessed during the pandemic (2020); and 3) test whether COVID-19 stressors exacerbate associations between parents’ emotion-related practices during the pandemic (2020) and child mental health outcomes (2021). We predict the following:
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H1: emotion-related parenting practices during the pandemic (2020), i.e., emotion coaching and emotion dismissing parenting practices ,will mediate the association between pre-pandemic parent mental health problems (2019) and child mental health issues two years later (2021). Specifically, emotion coaching parenting practices will be associated with lower levels of children’s parent-reported depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and externalizing behavioral problems, while emotion dismissing parenting practices will be associated with higher levels of children’s depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and externalizing behavioral problems.
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H2: For parents who report higher levels of COVID-19 pandemic stressors, there will be: i) stronger negative associations between emotion coaching practices during the pandemic (2020) and child mental health issues in 2021, and ii) stronger associations between emotion dismissing parenting practices during the pandemic (2020) and child mental health issues in 2021.