ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2021
Understanding at-the-moment stress for parents during COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Adolescent Mental Health and Substance Use.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2022Trial
- Mood reactivity to daily family stressors among transgender and nonbinary parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2026Article
- Health-related quality of life in parents of adolescents in 2019, 2021 and 2023.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Mental Health Literacy, Anxiety, and Insomnia in Chinese Chronically Ill Older Adult-Caregiver Dyads: Actor-Partner Interdependence Moderation Model.Family process · 2025Article
- Gender Differences in Employed Parents' Self-Rated Health During COVID-19 School Closures in an Affluent US Community.Sociological inquiry · 2025Article
- COVID-19 Stress and Family Well-Being: The Role of Sleep in Mental Health Outcomes for Parents and Children.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Actor-Partner Model of Parenting and Co-Parenting Practices and Youth Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Family process · 2025Article
- Maternal drinking, stress and use of aggressive parenting over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2025Article
- Knowledge of COVID-19 and the psychological status of parents: a retrospective survey in Wuhan, Hubei.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Greater mobile device-prompted phone pickups are associated with daily parent stress.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2024Article
- Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- Parental Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychological Outcomes and Risk and Protective Factors.Current psychiatry reports · 2023Review
- The Impact of COVID-19, Mental Health Distress, and School-Based Sociocultural Protective Factors among Elementary-Aged Children and their Caregivers.School Psychology International · 2023Article
- The Vaping and Patterns of e-Cigarette Use Research Study: Protocol for a Web-Based Cohort Study.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- The Mediation of Care and Overprotection between Parent-Adolescent Conflicts and Adolescents' Psychological Difficulties during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Which Role for Fathers?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- A U.S. National Study of Family Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of child and family studies · 2023Article
- Depression, anxiety and insomnia in Chinese older adults and their family caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic: an actor-partner interdependence model approach.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- UK alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of drinking motives, employment and subjective mental health.PloS one · 2023Article
- The impact of maternal work-family conflict on problem behaviors among preschoolers during the COVID-19 epidemic: a moderated mediation model of maternal anxiety and trait mindfulness.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
rationaleIn spring 2020, many states in the United States enacted stay-at-home orders to limit the spread of COVID-19 and lessen effects on hospitals and health care workers. This required parents to act in new roles without much support. Although studies have asked parents about stress before and during the pandemic, none have examined how stress may have fluctuated throughout the day and the characteristics related to those daily changes.
objectiveOur study assesses how time-varying (e.g., presence of a focal child) and day-varying (e.g., weekend vs. weekday) factors were related to parents' level of stress.
methodsWe use Ecological Momentary Assessment to examine stress three times a day (10 a.m., 3 p.m., and 9 p.m.) for 14 days. We include two different dates hypothesized to be related to parents' stress levels: (1) when Ohio announced schools would go virtual for the rest of the academic year and (2) when most retail businesses were allowed to re-open. Our sample of 332 individuals, recruited via Facebook, Craigslist, and word of mouth, completed 13,360 of these brief surveys during April-May 2020. Data were analyzed using generalized ordered logit models.
resultsParents report lower levels of stress when completing the 9 p.m. survey, but higher levels when they were at work, during weekdays (compared to weekends) or when they were with the focal child. COVID-19 milestone dates were not related to stress levels.
conclusionsParents need some form of respite (e.g. child care, child-only activities) to reduce stress, especially during the week when parents are juggling their outside employment and their child(ren)'s schooling. Providing parents with skills and tools to identify and reduce stress, such as apps monitoring heart rate or providing deep breathing techniques, may be one way of helping parents cope with extremely stressful situations.
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