Exposure to COVID-19 and the mental health of young children: The moderating role of parenting practices?

Abstract

Currently we live in a society where people experience all the influences from the COVID-19 pandemic on our daily lives. We are living in a world with many uncertainties like being able to maintain a job and/or a home, being able to finish your education programme and being able to stay healthy (Bögels, 2020). Some research studies on the potential consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on families indicate that the pandemic may worsen (existing) mental health (Golberstein et al., 2020). To explain the relations between exposure to COVID-19 and the mental health of children, this study examined the extent to which Dutch children (1 to 6 years old, N = 1316 ) were exposed to COVID-19 and how this affected their mental health. In addition, this study also examined whether there was a moderate effect of warm- and neglecting parenting practices between the exposure to COVID-19 and mental health in children. In total 1316 parents participated within this research study (Mage =34.46, SD = 4.00, 97% mothers). Participants completed an online survey via Qualtrics about the degree in which they and their children were exposed to COVID-19, the two different forms of parenting practices and their children’s mental health (De Young et al., 2020). The findings within this research study imply that different concepts of exposure to COVID-19 like suspiciousness of parents and/or children being infected, parents and children being tested and/or diagnosed with COVID-19, a close friend or family member being diagnosed with COVID-19, children who were separated from a primal caretaker and a close friend or family member died because of COVID-19 are associated with the mental health problems in children. This only applies when only the independent Exposure to COVID-19 is included. In addition, this study also found that neglecting parenting practices are associated with the mental health problems in children. Regarding the warm parenting practices no associations were found according to the mental health in children. Finally, there was no moderating effect of parenting practices on the association between exposure to COVID-19 and mental health problems in children. The main result within this research study is the significant association between neglecting parenting practices and mental health problems in children.