Adapting to Adversity: Effects of COVID-19 on Parenting in Chile
Date
2022
Type:
Article
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Abstract
The pandemic outbreak in March 2020 and its associated sanitary regulations and
restrictions triggered an abrupt and significant change for society in general and for
families’ organization in particular. In Chile, the Santiago Metropolitan District was
under a strict lockdown that involved the closure of the entire educational system.
From a systemic-family stress perspective, the impact of these changes might have
consequences not only for each individual family member, but for the parental dynamic
and, consequently, for children’s well-being. This paper presents the results of a followup
study showing changes in self-reported parental depression and the perceived
home organization of mothers and fathers assessed at three different moments: before
the pandemic, at the initial outbreak, and after 1 month of strict lockdown. Relevant
moderators were explored using linear mixed models to understand the within-subject
changes in mothers’ and fathers’ self-reports across the different assessment times.
Financial strain, personality traits of self-criticism and dependency, previous parent–
child quality interaction, recent major stressful events, and number of children are
highlighted as relevant factors that moderate changes in home chaos and parental
mental health perception. Significant risks and protective factors are described for
fathers and mothers. The use of pre-pandemic measures as baseline levels enabled the
identification of personal and family characteristics that were related to better outcomes.
The results help increase our understanding of the sanitary regulations’ impacts on the
family system and identify vulnerability indicators that should be considered.
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Citation
Pérez JC, Aldoney D, Vivanco-Carlevari A, Coo S, Guzmán EJ and Silva JR (2022) Adapting to Adversity: Effects of COVID-19 on Parenting in Chile. Front. Psychol. 13:868817. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.868817
Keywords
COVID-19, Parenting, Stress, Depression, Home chaos, Parent–child interactions