The Ecology of Youth Psychological Wellbeing in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The consequences of profound disruption to everyday life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will only emerge over time. Guided by ecological systems (Pitchik et al., 2021) and developmental psychopathology (Masten & Cicchetti, 2010) frameworks, I review evidence that points to parents at home with children as particularly vulnerable to increased psychological difficulties, particularly in contexts of poverty. Resultant compromised parenting may reduce children's opportunities for the kinds of everyday interactions that promote cognitive and socioemotional development and expose them to increases in coercive, avoidant, and other problematic caregiving behaviours. I discuss three evidence-based strategies that parents could adopt to buffer their child's mental health: building positive discipline strategies, talking with the child about the pandemic and its consequences, and conversing about the past. I conclude, however, that approaches to supporting parents and their children at this time must also address multisystem factors that compromise caregivers' ability to provide nurturing care.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Caregiving behaviors; Ecological systems; Parent-child reminiscing; Positive discipline; Youth mental health.

Figure 1

Adapted model of factors that can influence the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the child (from Pitchik et al., 2021’s conceptual model, originally developed through the lens of the nurturing care framework).

Figure 2

Intervention possibilities to buffer child mental health (adapted from Masten & Motti-Stefanidi, 2020, Pitchik et al., 2021).