Parents’ Mental Health Struggles in Relation to the Mental Health of Their Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic The Role of Emotion Responsive Parenting

Abstract

Adolescents, their parents, and the world have experienced significant changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, including impacts on mental health. This study examines the role of emotion responsive parenting (e.g., how much parents talk to their children about emotions, thoughts, etc.) in the relationship between parents and their children’s mental health. In Spring 2021, surveys were collected from middle school students and their parents. This project uses data from these surveys to illustrate the relationship between parents’ mental health and their perception of their children’s mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this study examines levels of anxiety and depression based on preliminary findings where nearly half of students reported at-risk or clinically significant levels of anxiety (46.9%) and/or depression (44.6%). This project builds from these results, examining the associations between parents and their children’s mental health. Additionally, this study explores the indirect association between mental health symptoms via emotion responsive parenting styles, emotion coaching and uncertain or ineffective emotion socialization. An association between parent and child anxiety and an association between parent and child depression was found. The study also discovered emotion coaching was not a mediator for either relationship but found uncertain or ineffective emotion socialization to be a mediator for the relationship between parent and child anxiety. These results have implications for school districts, communities, and families; it is vital that parents be involved in the conversation, so they too understand how their mental health and parenting impacts their children.