Domínguez-Álvarez Beatriz, López-Romero Laura, Isdahl-Troye Aimé, Gómez-Fraguela Jose Antonio, Romero Estrella
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2020 Dec 16;11:577763. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577763. eCollection 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of millions of people around the globe and some of the unprecedent emerged disruptions, are likely to have been particularly challenging for young children (e.g., school closures, social distancing measures, movement restrictions). Studying the impact of such extraordinary circumstances on their well-being is crucial to identify processes leading to risk and resilience. To better understand how Spanish children have adapted to the stressful disruptions resulting from the pandemic outbreak, we examined the effects of child coping and its interactions with contextual stressors (pandemic and family related) on child adjustment, incorporating in our analysis a developmental perspective. Data was collected in April 2020, through parent-reports, during the acute phase of the pandemic and, temporarily coinciding with the mandatory national quarantine period imposed by the Spanish Government. A sample of 1,123 Spanish children (50% girls) aged 3 to 12 (Mage = 7.26; SD = 2.39) participated in the study. Results showed differences in the use of specific strategies by children in different age groups (i.e., 3-6, 7-9 and 10-12-year-olds). Despite the uncontrollable nature of the pandemic-related stressors, child disengagement coping was distinctively associated to negative outcomes (i.e., higher levels of behavioral and emotional difficulties), whereas engagement coping predicted psychosocial adjustment across all age groups. Moreover, interactively with child coping, parent fear of the future and parent dispositional resilience appear as relevant contextual factors to predict both negative and positive outcomes, but their effects seem to be age dependent, suggesting a higher contextual vulnerability for younger children. These findings might have implications for identifying individual and contextual risk and informing potential preventive interventions aimed to reduce the impact of future pandemic outbreaks on children of different ages.
新冠疫情改变了全球数百万人的生活，一些前所未有的干扰对幼儿来说可能尤其具有挑战性（例如学校关闭、社交距离措施、行动限制）。研究这种特殊情况对他们幸福的影响对于识别导致风险和恢复力的过程至关重要。为了更好地了解西班牙儿童如何适应疫情爆发带来的压力干扰，我们从发展的角度，研究了儿童应对方式及其与情境压力源（与疫情和家庭相关）的相互作用对儿童适应的影响。数据于2020年4月通过家长报告收集，当时处于疫情急性期，且恰逢西班牙政府强制实施的全国隔离期。1123名3至12岁的西班牙儿童（50%为女孩）参与了该研究（平均年龄 = 7.26岁；标准差 = 2.39）。结果显示不同年龄组（即3 - 6岁、7 - 9岁和10 - 12岁）的儿童在使用特定策略方面存在差异。尽管与疫情相关的压力源具有不可控性，但儿童的脱离应对方式与负面结果（即行为和情绪问题水平较高）显著相关，而参与应对方式则预测了所有年龄组的心理社会适应情况。此外，与儿童应对方式相互作用的是，家长对未来的恐惧和家长的特质恢复力似乎是预测负面和正面结果的相关情境因素，但其影响似乎因年龄而异，这表明年幼儿童的情境脆弱性更高。这些发现可能有助于识别个体和情境风险，并为旨在减少未来疫情爆发对不同年龄段儿童影响的潜在预防性干预措施提供信息。
