•34.6% of parents said their child’s behavior had changed since the pandemic.•Two out of five parents met criteria for depression or anxiety disorder.•Parent depression and stress were negatively ...associated with home education.•Parent anxiety and stress were positively associated with child anxiety.•Parents were hugging/ showing affection to child more often during pandemic.
This study reports on parent-child dynamics during initial COVID-19 related school closures, based on cross-sectional analyses of a survey that utilized a convenience sampling approach. Data were collected in April 2020, approximately five weeks after the World Health Organization declared that the Coronavirus was a pandemic. Participants (N = 405) were adults recruited throughout the U.S. This study examines data from parents (69% mothers and 31% fathers) with at least one child 0–12 years of age. The majority were White (71%) and 41% had at least a bachelor’s degree. The majority of parents (78%) were educating their child at home due to COVID-19. Most (77.1%) reported use of online tools for at-home education, including educational apps, social media, and school-provided electronic resources. More than one-third (34.7%) of parents said their child’s behavior had changed since the pandemic, including being sad, depressed, and lonely. Most parents were spending more time involved in daily caregiving of their children since COVID-19. Two out of every five parents met the PHQ-8 criteria for major depression or severe major depression (40.0%) and the GAD-7 criteria for moderate or severe anxiety (39.9%). Multivariate analyses indicated that, compared to non-depressed parents, parents who met criteria for probable major or severe depression (B = −0.16, 95% CI = −0.29, −0.02, p = .021) and parenting stress (B = −0.37, 95% CI = −0.47, −0.27, p < .001) were negatively associated with parents’ perceived preparation to educate at home. Compared to parents with minimal or mild anxiety, parents with moderate or severe anxiety reported higher child anxiety scores (B = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.06, 0.28, p = .002). Parenting stress was also positively associated with higher child anxiety scores (B = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.32, 0.48, p < .001). Content analyses of open-ended questions indicated that school closures were a significant disruption, followed by lack of physical activity, and social isolation. Overall, study results suggested that parents’ mental health may be an important factor linked to at-home education and child wellbeing during the pandemic.
Objective
The present study tested a hypothesized mediation model in which the seven contingencies of self‐worth proposed by Crocker and Wolfe mediate the association between global self‐esteem and ...eating disturbances in college women.
Method
This study utilized a sample of 408 college women. Path analysis was used to produce a model in which the association between global self‐esteem and eating disturbances was accounted for through contingencies of self‐worth.
Results
The finalized model indicated that self‐worth based on appearance and competition mediated the link between global self‐esteem and both drive for thinness and bulimic symptoms. Self‐worth based on virtue mediated the link between global self‐esteem and bulimic symptoms.
Conclusion
The present findings clarify facets of self‐worth accounting for the association between global self‐esteem and eating disturbances in college women, and point to how self‐worth based on one's appearance, or the ability to outdo others, is centrally implicated in this relationship.
The current study conceptualized body image instability as a maladaptive tendency to vacillate between different self-perceptions of one's overall body image and developed a corresponding measure to ...assess body image instability. Results from a series of studies of young adult women demonstrated the validity, reliability, and utility of the Vacillating Body Image Scale (VBIS) as a meaningful measure of body image instability. In Study 1, we found that body image instability, as assessed by the VBIS, represents a unidimensional and reliable construct. In Study 2, we found evidence for both the convergent and discriminant validity of the VBIS in relation to other individual differences measures (i.e., self-concept schema, broad personality factors). In Study 3, the concurrent criterion validity of the VBIS was supported for young adult women in relation to a range of adjustment measures. Finally, in Study 4, we found consistent evidence for the incremental validity of the VBIS in predicting subsequent variations in eating disturbances, even after controlling for global self-esteem and self-concept instability. Overall, our findings offer promising support for our contention that body image instability, as measured by the VBIS, represents an important construct for understanding eating-related disturbances and other health outcomes in young adult women.
COVID-19 is likely to have negatively impacted foster families but few data sources are available to confirm this.
The current study used Reddit social media data to examine how foster families are ...faring in the pandemic. Discussion topics were identified and examined for changes before and after COVID-19.
Comments were collected from three Reddit online discussion boards dedicated to foster families (N = 11,830).
We used machine learning techniques, including Latent Dirichlet Allocation, for topic modeling and textual analysis for qualitative coding of the Reddit comments.
Results showed that three main topics had both significant quantitative and meaningful qualitative changes before and after COVID-19. There were significant increases in conversation about becoming a foster parent (F = 5.75, p = 0.02) and activities for foster children (F = 10.61, p = 0.001), whereas there was a significant decrease in discussing permanency (F = 9.46, p = 0.003) before and after the onset of COVID-19. Qualitative coding showed that regarding the topic of becoming a parent, excitement over approval of foster care license before COVID-19 shifted to foster families' increased anxieties about delays in their licensing cases after COVID-19. For permanency, content changed from the best interest of the child and reunifications before COVID-19 to concerns over family separations and permanency challenges after COVID-19. Regarding activities for foster children, content related to everyday activities before COVID-19 changed to specific activities foster children and families could do during lockdowns. Results suggest areas child welfare workers may focus on to better support foster families during and after the pandemic.
Numerous studies have identified the relationship between perfectionism and body image. However, the relationships between perfectionistic tendencies and body image instability are not yet well ...understood in different ethnic/racial groups. Building on recent evidence indicating that body image instability is associated with maladaptive psychological symptoms among young adult women, the present study tested a hypothesized hierarchical regression model in which facets of perfectionism in the general and physical appearance domains were examined as predictors of body image instability among Asian American (
n
= 181) and European American (
n
= 173) young adult women. For both ethnic/racial groups, the models by which facets of perfectionism in the general and physical appearance domains predicted body image instability revealed a similar pattern. Specifically, doubts about actions perfectionism in the general domain and worries about imperfection in the physical appearance domain predicted greater body image instability across both Asian American and European American young adult women. The present findings clarify facets of perfectionism in the general and physical appearance domains that predict body image instability among Asian American and European American women and point to how perfectionistic doubts about actions and worries about not having the perfect appearance are centrally implicated in this relationship.
Millions of mothers with young children in the U.S. struggle to afford basic needs. Material hardships such as inadequate food, housing, and medical care increase risk for child maltreatment as ...mothers face heightened physical and emotional strain.
The present study applied a person-centered approach to understand unique subtypes of material hardship experienced by at-risk mothers in the postpartum year, and links from hardship subtypes to subsequent child maltreatment.
The sample included at-risk mothers who gave birth in one of 20 large American cities 1998–2000 and retained custody of their children at age 1 and 3 (N = 3966).
Latent class analysis (LCA) identified subtypes of material hardship; mean maltreatment scores were estimated across classes.
LCA identified four hardship subtypes with differential risks for maltreatment. Compared to “Stable” mothers, “Cost-Burdened” mothers – who displayed high levels of missed rent and utility payments – were significantly more likely to psychological abuse (χ2 = 5.04, p < 0.05) or neglect (χ2 = 4.46, p < 0.05) their children. “Severely Housing Insecure Mothers” – characterized by elevated rates of doubling up, eviction, and homelessness – were significantly more likely to engage in physical assault (χ2 = 16.25, p < 0.001), psychological aggression (χ2 = 11.15, p < 0.01), and neglect (χ2 = 17.55, p < 0.001).
Difficulty maintaining stable and affordable housing is associated with elevated risk of child maltreatment. Efforts to prevent child maltreatment must incorporate access to housing screening and supports, particularly among families with infants.
The present research focused on the development of a brief measure of suicidal ideation frequency, namely, the Frequency of Suicidal Ideation Inventory (FSII). Study 1 examined the latent structure ...of the FSII in a sample of 399 US college students. Results of exploratory factor analysis indicated a one-factor solution accounting for 86.96 % of the variance. Study 2 provided support for the internal reliability of the FSII across four different international samples (viz., US, Turkey, Hungary, and China). Within the US sample, the FSII was found to possess good 6-week test–retest reliability. Moreover, an examination of the associations between the FSII and important measures of suicide risk factors (e.g., suicidal behaviors) and suicide protective factors (e.g., flourishing) provided support for the construct validity of our new measure in an independent sample of 143 US college students. In addition, we found preliminary evidence supporting the FSII as a useful measure of the likelihood of making a future suicide attempt and evidence for the utility of the FSII over established measures of suicide risk in predicting depressive symptoms. Overall, the present findings provide promising evidence for the validity and reliability of the FSII as a brief measure of SI frequency in adults.
With the growth of positive psychology during the past two decades, increased research has been focused on identifying human virtues that not only foster well-being but also act as positive processes ...that mitigate the impact of life adversities. Thus, it is useful to examine how positive processes, such as hope, may impact individuals’ psychological adjustment following adversities. This study investigated the relationships among interpersonal violence, hope, as a key human strength, and negative affect conditions in a large sample (N = 737) of Chinese male and female (Nfemale = 409) college students. Participants completed measures assessing prior exposure to interpersonal violence, levels of both hope components (i.e., agency and pathways), negative affect, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Results from correlational analyses showed that exposure to interpersonal violence was positively and hope was negatively correlated with negative affective conditions. However, hope agency was more strongly correlated with those outcomes than hope pathways. In addition, three separate hierarchical regression analyses indicated that after accounting for demographics (i.e., age and sex) and interpersonal violence, within hope components, only hope agency remained as strong concurrent predictors of negative affective conditions. The present findings in this Chinese sample are consistent with those obtained from Turkey and the United States samples, adding evidence to the more robust role of hope, and hope agency in particular, in predicting negative psychological adjustment associated with interpersonal violence. Efforts made to address the absence of hope agency may be particularly important in future attempts to mitigate negative affective conditions linked to interpersonal violence among Chinese college students.
The present study sought to determine if the positive association between positive emotions and life satisfaction can be understood as a function of hope in Chinese. Consistent with the ...broaden-and-build model of positive emotions, we tested the hypothesis that positive affectivity, the disposition to experience positive emotions, would be associated with broadening hope agency, building hope pathways, or both, in a sample of 212 Chinese college students. Results examining for bootstrapped mediation testing with multiple mediators indicated that positive affectivity was indirectly associated with life satisfaction through hope agency, but not through hope pathways. In support for partial mediation, however, the association between positive affectivity and life satisfaction remained significant even after including hope components in the model. Some implications of the present findings are discussed.
The present study tested a prediction model involving affectivity and dispositional optimism as predictors of suicide risk (i.e., depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation) in young adult Chinese ...females with and without prior interpersonal violence (IPV) victimization (294 nonvictimized and 94 victimized females). Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that negative affectivity was a significant predictor of both depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation for Chinese females, regardless of IPV victimization. Beyond affectivity, dispositional optimism was found to further add to the prediction model of depressive symptoms in both groups, but only for suicidal ideation in the IPV victimized group.
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