Department of Psychology, Yale University.
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University.
Emotion. 2023 Sep;23(6):1808-1813. doi: 10.1037/emo0001174. Epub 2022 Nov 10.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in heightened stress for families in the United States, and exposure to pandemic-related stress has been found to confer risk for mental health problems among both children and parents. To isolate risk and protective factors for children living through the ongoing pandemic, several studies have begun to examine family-level factors that may exacerbate or buffer the impact of exposure to COVID-19-related stress on children's symptomatology. Building upon the extant literature documenting associations between parents' emotion regulation and children's mental health, especially during times of stress, the present study aimed to examine parents' regulation of their own emotions as a potential moderator of the association between children's exposure to family-level COVID-19-related stress and internalizing and externalizing problems. Results suggest that parents' regulation of their own emotions using expressive suppression, specifically, may exacerbate the effect of exposure to pandemic-related stress on children's internalizing problems, but not externalizing problems. Results highlight the importance of prioritizing parents' mental health and self-regulation in prevention and intervention efforts aimed at improving family-wide mental health outcomes during public health crises that place family systems under significant stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
新冠疫情给美国的家庭带来了更大的压力，接触与疫情相关的压力已被发现会给儿童和父母带来心理健康问题的风险。为了隔离儿童在持续大流行中经历的风险和保护因素，一些研究开始研究可能加剧或缓冲儿童接触与新冠疫情相关压力对其症状影响的家庭层面因素。在已有文献记录父母情绪调节与儿童心理健康之间的关联的基础上，特别是在压力时期，本研究旨在检验父母自身情绪调节作为儿童接触家庭层面与新冠疫情相关的压力与内化和外化问题之间关联的潜在调节因素。结果表明，父母使用表达抑制来调节自身情绪，特别是可能会加剧儿童接触与疫情相关压力对其内化问题的影响，但对外化问题没有影响。结果强调了在预防和干预努力中优先考虑父母心理健康和自我调节的重要性，这些努力旨在改善公共卫生危机期间家庭心理健康结果，因为这些危机使家庭系统承受巨大压力。
