Open AccessParent–adolescent relationship quality as a moderator of links between COVID-19 disruption and reported changes in mothers’ and young adults’ adjustment in five countries.
Author(s) -
Ann T. Skinner,
Jennifer Godwin,
Liane Peña Alampay,
Jennifer E. Lansford,
Dario Bacchini,
Marc H. Bornstein,
Kirby DeaterDeckard,
Laura Di Giunta,
Kenneth A. Dodge,
Sevtap Gurdal,
Concetta Pastorelli,
Emma Sorbring,
Laurence Steinberg,
Sombat Tapanya,
Saengduean Yotanyamaneewong
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.318
H-Index - 213
eISSN - 1939-0599
pISSN - 0012-1649
DOI - 10.1037/dev0001236
Subject(s) - psychology , psycinfo , developmental psychology , moderation , pandemic , young adult , mental health , association (psychology) , psychological resilience , covid-19 , social psychology , medline , psychiatry , medicine , disease , pathology , political science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , psychotherapist
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented families around the world with extraordinary challenges related to physical and mental health, economic security, social support, and education. The current study capitalizes on a longitudinal, cross-national study of parenting, adolescent development, and young adult competence to document the association between personal disruption during the pandemic and reported changes in internalizing and externalizing behavior in young adults and their mothers since the pandemic began. It further investigates whether family functioning during adolescence 3 years earlier moderates this association. Data from 484 families in five countries (Italy, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States) reveal that higher levels of reported disruption during the pandemic are related to reported increases in internalizing and externalizing behaviors after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic for young adults (Mage = 20) and their mothers in all five countries, with the exception of one association in Thailand. Associations between disruption during the pandemic and young adults' and their mothers' reported increases in internalizing and externalizing behaviors were attenuated by higher levels of youth disclosure, more supportive parenting, and lower levels of destructive adolescent-parent conflict prior to the pandemic. This work has implications for fostering parent-child relationships characterized by warmth, acceptance, trust, open communication, and constructive conflict resolution at all times given their protective effects for family resilience during times of crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).