The effect of post-COVID-19 pandemic life changes on child internalizing and externalizing behaviors: The mediation by parent's mental health difficulties vis-à-vis close parent-child relationship

• Main Author: Dimaisip, Kisha Anne A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2023
• Subjects: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-; Mental health; Parent and adult child; Child psychology; Clinical Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_psych/52; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdm_psych/article/1052/viewcontent/2023_Dimaisip_The_Effect_of_Post_COVID_19_Pandemic_Life_Changes_Full_text.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a source of stress in families' lives for nearly two years. After the COVID-19-induced lockdown, their daily lives have changed again, and the new challenges they face could continue to influence the family's mental health and behaviors. Parents’ routines, employment, and access to resources are still affected during the post-pandemic period, and their children are also affected, which is observed through their behaviors. The present study focuses on the parents’ experience on the post-pandemic life changes and how these affected their mental health. It also focused on how parents’ mental health difficulties as well as the quality of the relationship with their children could contribute to their children's problem behaviors. Furthermore, how children’s behavior was influenced by the post-pandemic life changes were also examined. The survey respondents were 162 parents with children aged 10 to 12 during the COVID lockdown. The study showed that the children’s problem behaviors were not directly affected by post-COVID-19 untoward life changes, but their problem behaviors were indirectly associated with their parent's mental health difficulties, and parent-child closeness is associated with fewer child behavior problems but did not mitigate the effect of parent mental health difficulties on child behavior. The results imply a need to improve parents’ mental health to help prevent the development of problematic behavior among children. Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic life changes, parents' mental health, parental stress, parent-child relationship, child behavior, children's internalizing behaviors, children's externalizing behaviors