Toppe Theo, Stengelin Roman, Schmidt Louisa S, Amini Naiera, Schuhmacher Nils
Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Department of Education, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2021 Sep 9;12:645266. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645266. eCollection 2021.
The coronavirus pandemic poses a substantial threat to people across the globe. In the first half of 2020, governments limited the spread of virus by imposing diverse regulations. These regulations had a particular impact on families as parents had to manage their occupational situation and childcare in parallel. Here, we examine a variation in parents' and children's stress during the lockdowns in the first half of 2020 and detect the correlates of families' stress. Between April and June 2020, we conducted an explorative online survey among = 422 parents of 3- to 10-year-old children residing in 17 countries. Most participants came from Germany ( = 274), Iran ( = 70), UK ( = 23), and USA ( = 23). Parents estimated their own stress, the stress of their own children, and various information on potential correlates (e.g., accommodation, family constellation, education, community size, playtime for children, contact with peers, media consumption, and physical activity). Parents also stated personal values regarding openness to change, self-transcendence, self-enhancement, and conservation. The results indicate a substantial variation in the stress levels of families and their diverse reactions to regulations. Media consumption by children commonly increased in comparison to the time before the pandemic. Parents raising both pre-school- and school-aged children were at a particular risk of experiencing stress in response to regulations. Estimated stress and reactions varied with the age of children and the personal values of parents, suggesting that such variables need to be considered when implementing and evaluating regulations and supporting young families in the current and future pandemic.
新冠疫情对全球人民构成了重大威胁。2020年上半年，各国政府通过实施各种规定来限制病毒传播。这些规定对家庭产生了特别的影响，因为父母必须同时应对工作情况和子女照料问题。在此，我们研究了2020年上半年封锁期间父母和孩子的压力变化，并找出家庭压力的相关因素。2020年4月至6月，我们对居住在17个国家的422名3至10岁孩子的父母进行了一项探索性在线调查。大多数参与者来自德国（274人）、伊朗（70人）、英国（23人）和美国（23人）。父母们评估了自己的压力、孩子的压力，以及各种潜在相关因素的信息（如住房、家庭结构、教育程度、社区规模、孩子的玩耍时间、与同龄人接触、媒体消费和体育活动）。父母们还阐述了关于对变化的开放性、自我超越、自我提升和保守主义的个人价值观。结果表明，家庭压力水平存在很大差异，以及他们对规定的不同反应。与疫情前相比，孩子们的媒体消费普遍增加。抚养学龄前和学龄儿童的父母在应对规定时特别容易感到压力。估计的压力和反应因孩子的年龄和父母的个人价值观而异，这表明在实施和评估规定以及在当前和未来疫情中支持年轻家庭时需要考虑这些变量。
