IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i9p5586-d808438.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

At Home and on the Brink: U.S. Parents’ Mental Health during COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Moreland-Russell

    (Prevention Research Center, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA)

  • Jason Jabbari

    (Social Policy Institute, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA)

  • Dan Ferris

    (Social Policy Institute, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA)

  • Stephen Roll

    (Social Policy Institute, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA)

Abstract

Though the COVID-19 pandemic required significant changes and adaptations for most Americans, parents faced acute challenges as they had to navigate rapidly changing schooling and child care policies requiring their children to spend more time at home. This study examines the effects of COVID-19 school and workplace policies as well as environmental and economic characteristics on parental mental health, worry, hopelessness, and anxiety. Using data from four waves of the Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19 Survey and regression analysis, we explore associations between parents’ mental health, worry, hopelessness, and anxiety and school learning environment, child grade and learning disability, employment characteristics, and sociodemographic factors. We find that having a child attend a private school or school with above average instructional quality was associated with better mental health of parents. Hybrid schooling options offering both in-person and online learning was associated with poor parental mental health, as was working from home. Being female or experiencing job or income loss were associated with worse mental health while having older children, a bachelor’s degree, or high income were associated with better mental health. Results can help inform school and workplace family supports as well as opportunities to reduce mental health strains at home from various policy options.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Moreland-Russell & Jason Jabbari & Dan Ferris & Stephen Roll, 2022. "At Home and on the Brink: U.S. Parents’ Mental Health during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-13, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5586-:d:808438
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5586/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5586/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boyd-Swan, Casey & Herbst, Chris M. & Ifcher, John & Zarghamee, Homa, 2016. "The earned income tax credit, mental health, and happiness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 126(PA), pages 18-38.
    2. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsustsui, 2021. "School closures and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1261-1298, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlos Díaz & Sebastian Fossati & Nicolás Trajtenberg, 2022. "Stay at home if you can: COVID‐19 stay‐at‐home guidelines and local crime," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1113, December.
    2. Eiji Yamamura & Fumio Ohtake, 2023. "Family Structure, Gender and Subjective Well-being: Effect of Child ren before and after COVID 19 in Japan," Papers 2312.04411, arXiv.org.
    3. Hetschko, Clemens & Schöb, Ronnie & Wolf, Tobias, 2020. "Income support, employment transitions and well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Otto Lenhart, 2021. "Earned income tax credit and crime," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(3), pages 589-607, July.
    5. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsutsui & Fumio Ohtake, 2023. "The Effect of Primary School Education on Preventive Behaviours during COVID-19 in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-12, May.
    6. Braga, Breno & Blavin, Fredric & Gangopadhyaya, Anuj, 2020. "The long-term effects of childhood exposure to the earned income tax credit on health outcomes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    7. Mari, Gabriele, 2023. "Less for more? Cuts to child benefits, family adjustments, and long-run child outcomes in larger families," SocArXiv e3n82, Center for Open Science.
    8. Anna Godøy & Maja Weemes Grøtting & Rannveig Kaldager Hart, 2022. "Reopening schools in a context of low COVID-19 contagion: consequences for teachers, students and their parents," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 935-961, July.
    9. Noghanibehambari, Hamid & Engelman, Michal, 2022. "Social insurance programs and later-life mortality: Evidence from new deal relief spending," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Dow, William H. & Godøy, Anna & Lowenstein, Christopher & Reich, Michael, 2020. "Can Labor Market Policies Reduce Deaths of Despair?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Wang, Julia Shu-Huah & Zhao, Xi & Nam, Jaehyun, 2021. "The effects of welfare participation on parenting stress and parental engagement using an instrumental variables approach: Evidence from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    12. Eiji Yamamura, 2021. "Granddaughter and voting for a female candidate," Papers 2102.13464, arXiv.org.
    13. ASAKAWA Shinsuke & OHTAKE Fumio, 2022. "Impact of COVID-19 School Closures on the Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills of Elementary School Students," Discussion papers 22075, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    14. Kerris Cooper & Kitty Stewart, 2021. "Does Household Income Affect children’s Outcomes? A Systematic Review of the Evidence," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 981-1005, June.
    15. Wolf, Tobias, 2020. "Welfare while working: How does the life satisfaction approach help to explain job search behavior?," Discussion Papers 2020/14, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    16. Lauren E. Jones & Guangyi Wang & Tansel Yilmazer, 2022. "The long‐term effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on women's physical and mental health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 1067-1102, June.
    17. Jason M. Lindo & Krishna Regmi & Isaac Swensen, 2020. "Stable Income, Stable Family," NBER Working Papers 27753, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Nguyen, Phuc Van & Nguyen, Phong Thanh & Huynh, Vy Dang Bich & Nguyen, Quyen Le Hoang Thuy To, 2017. "Critical Factors Affecting The Happiness: A Vietnamese Perspective," MPRA Paper 96587, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Pignatti, Clemente & Parolin, Zachary, 2023. "The Effects of an Unconditional Cash Transfer on Mental Health in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 16237, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Simpson, Julija & Albani, Viviana & Bell, Zoe & Bambra, Clare & Brown, Heather, 2021. "Effects of social security policy reforms on mental health and inequalities: A systematic review of observational studies in high-income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5586-:d:808438. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.