Deviations in stress and support: Associations with parenting emotions across the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Stress is a potent disruptor of parents' emotional well-being and interactions with their children. In the context of the early months of the unfolding pandemic, parents' stress likely fluctuated, with downstream impacts on their parenting experiences. The sample consisted of 72 Latina mothers who participated in a 15-20-min phone interview roughly once a month between March 2020 and January 2021. Mothers were asked about their experiences of stress, the quality of partner support, and their emotional experience of parenting. Analyses revealed that mothers' experiences of stress were high at the beginning of the pandemic and slowly decreased as time went on, though this decline eventually leveled off. Partner support and mothers' emotional experiences of parenting, on the other hand, did not change across the first 10 months of the pandemic. Collectively, the within and between analyses revealed that stress (individually), and stress and support (interactively) were associated with mothers' emotional experiences while interacting with their children. Between-subjects analyses revealed greater stress was associated with greater negative emotions during parenting, though support did not buffer this association. Within-subjects analyses revealed a quadratic association between stress and positive parenting emotions, such that at lower levels of stress, increases in stress were associated with more positive than typical emotions during parenting. However, the inclusion of social support into the model as a moderator revealed that when mothers received less support than typical from their partners, mothers' greater experience of stress was associated with their greater experience of negativity during parent-child interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Figure 1. Johnson-Neyman Plot for the Simple Slope of the Quadratic Effect of Within-Person Maternal Stress on Positive Parent-Child Interactions

Note. Johnson-Neyman plot of the region of significance for the simple slope of within-person deviations in mother’s stress on positive parent-child interactions.

Figure 2. Simple Slopes of the Quadratic Effect of Within-person Maternal Stress on Positive Parent-Child Interactions by Low, Average, and High Within-person Partner Support

Note 1. Plot of the predicted value of positive parent-child child interactions at lower, person-average, and higher levels of partner support across the range of within-person deviations in mother's stress.

Figure 3a. Johnson-Neyman Plot for the Simple Slope of the Quadratic Effect of Within-Person Mother’s Stress on Positive Parent-Child Interactions at Lower Levels of Partner Support

Note. Johnson-Neyman plot of the simple slope of within-person deviations in mother's stress on positive parent-child interactions when partner social support was lower than average (−1 standard deviation) across the range of within-person deviations in mother’s stress. All values are standardized. For mothers receiving below average partner support: All stress levels less than or equal to 0.26 standardized units above mothers’ average stress demonstrated a positive effect on mother-child interactions. Increases in stress levels between 0.26 - 1.31 standardized units above their average stress level had no significant effect on parent-child interactions. However, stress levels greater than or equal to 1.31 standardized units above mothers’ average stress demonstrated a negative effect on mother-child interactions.

Figure 3b. Johnson-Neyman Plot for the Simple Slope of the Quadratic Effect of Within-Person Mother’s Stress on Positive Parent-Child Interactions at Person-Average Levels of Partner Support

Note. Johnson-Neyman plot of the simple slope of within-person deviations in mother's stress on positive parent-child interactions when partner social support was at person-average (0) across the range of within-person deviations in mother’s stress. All values are standardized. For mothers receiving their average levels of partner support: Decreases in stress below a person’s mean were associated with more positive mother-child interactions and, all values in stress level deviations up to 0.26 standardized units above the mother’s mean stress were significantly associated with more positive mother-child interactions. Increases in stress levels between 0.26 - 3.96 standardized units above their average stress level had no significant effect on mother-child interactions. Increases in stress greater than or equal to 3.96 standardized units above their average level of stress significantly and negatively predicted mother-child interaction.

Figure 3c. Johnson-Neyman Plot for the Simple Slope of the Quadratic Effect of Within-Person Mother’s Stress on Positive Parent-Child Interactions at Higher Levels of Partner Support

Note. Johnson-Neyman plot of the simple slope of within-person deviations in mother's stress on positive parent-child interactions when partner social support was higher than average (+1 standard deviation) across the range of within-person deviations in mother’s stress. All values are standardized. The simple slope within-person deviation in mother’s stress on positive parent-child interactions was not significant when levels of partner support were above a person’s average.