Trajectories of Parental Daily Stress: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Journal
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
ISSN
1660-4601
Date Issued
2023
Author(s)
Andrés Muñoz-Najar
Manuel Montemurro
Leonel Tapia
González, Constanza
Sofía Gana
Luz María Silva
Carolina Panesso
Type
Resource Types::text::journal::journal article
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85161720155
DOI
URL
URL Institutional Repository
Abstract
<jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic was a source of significant stress due to health and safety concerns and measures to control the virus’ spread, such as mobility restrictions. This measure was especially demanding for parents with school aged children, who had to find new work–family balance as their children participate in online education while attempting to work remotely. To evaluate parents’ stress trajectories during the pandemic, we conducted Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMAs) during lockdown for 29 days in 68 families in Santiago, Chile. In addition, we evaluated the role of educational level and income, co-parenting, and number of children in parents’ stress trajectories. Our results showed that during the first weeks of lockdown expected protective factors (i.e., income and co-parental support) were not able to influence parents’ daily stress management. Moreover, parents with higher educational levels reported worse stress adaptation than less educated parents. On the other hand, co-parental conflict was significantly associated with parent’s stress. Our study captured an acute response to COVID-19 related challenges. This study contributes to understanding how parents adjust to stress during adverse circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic.</jats:p>
Project(s)
Subjects
co-parenting

; 

covid-19 lockdown

; 

ecological momentary assessment

; 

parental education

; 

parenting

; 

socioeconomic status

; 

stress

; 

child

; 

communicable disease control

; 

covid-19

; 

ecological momentary assessment

; 

humans

; 

pandemics

; 

surveys and questionnaires

; 

chile

; 

metropolitana

; 

covid-19

; 

educational attainment

; 

income

; 

public health

; 

socioeconomic status

; 

adaptation

; 

adult

; 

article

; 

child

; 

child parent relation

; 

chile

; 

co parenting

; 

controlled study

; 

coping behavior

; 

coronavirus disease 2019

; 

e-learning

; 

ecological momentary assessment

; 

educational status

; 

epidemiological data

; 

family conflict

; 

female

; 

human

; 

income

; 

lifestyle and related phenomena

; 

lockdown

; 

male

; 

number of children

; 

pandemic

; 

parental stress

; 

preschool child

; 

social status

; 

telecommuting

; 

travel restriction

; 

work family balance

; 

communicable disease control

; 

coronavirus disease 2019

; 

ecological momentary assessment

; 

pandemic

; 

questionnaire