IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v11y2022i4p173-d789711.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Being a Parent during COVID-19: Risk for Psychological Distress in the United States and Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Jocelyn Lai

    (Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA)

  • Phoebe T. Pham

    (Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA)

  • Jordan Bate

    (Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, New York, NY 10461, USA)

  • Tracy A. Prout

    (Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, New York, NY 10461, USA)

  • Alessandro Carollo

    (Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38122 Trento, Italy)

  • Peipei Setoh

    (School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore)

  • Gianluca Esposito

    (Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38122 Trento, Italy
    School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
    Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore)

  • Jessica L. Borelli

    (Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant effects on people worldwide, yet the psychological impact of collective traumas may differ at the individual and societal level. Parents may be exposed to greater pandemic-related stressors, yet also are more likely than non-parents to have social interactions during social distancing mandates. Furthermore, varying degrees of pandemic severity in countries may alter the adverse outcomes of pandemic stressors on psychopathology across nations. The purpose of this investigation was to cross-nationally explore how COVID-19 stress exposure relates to psychological distress and whether the association differed by parental status and nationality. Individuals from the United States ( n = 2449) and Italy ( n = 579) completed assessments measuring traumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and COVID-19-related stressors. COVID-19-related stressors were positively associated with traumatic stress and depressive symptoms. The association between COVID-19-related stressors and psychological distress did not differ by parental status or nationality. We also found that being a young adult, having a lower educational status, not being a parent, and being Italian were related to exposure to COVID-19-related stressors. We discuss these findings and their implications for our understanding of unique contexts that may pose as risk or resiliency factors during a global collective trauma, particularly on parental psychological distress as a way of promoting whole-family wellness.

Suggested Citation

  • Jocelyn Lai & Phoebe T. Pham & Jordan Bate & Tracy A. Prout & Alessandro Carollo & Peipei Setoh & Gianluca Esposito & Jessica L. Borelli, 2022. "Being a Parent during COVID-19: Risk for Psychological Distress in the United States and Italy," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:4:p:173-:d:789711
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/4/173/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/4/173/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carlos Cinelli & Chad Hazlett, 2020. "Making sense of sensitivity: extending omitted variable bias," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 82(1), pages 39-67, February.
    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. Lamberova, Natalia, 2021. "The puzzling politics of R&D: Signaling competence through risky projects," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 801-818.
    2. Johnen, Constantin & Musshoff, Oliver & Parlasca, Martin C., 2022. "Mobile Money Adoption in Kenya: The Role of Mobile Money Agents," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322294, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Heng Chen & Daniel F. Heitjan, 2022. "Analysis of local sensitivity to nonignorability with missing outcomes and predictors," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 78(4), pages 1342-1352, December.
    4. Indra de Soysa, 2022. "Economic freedom vs. egalitarianism: An empirical test of weak & strong sustainability, 1970–2017," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 236-268, May.
    5. Garz, Marcel & Maaß, Sabrina, 2021. "Cartels in the European Union, antitrust action, and public attention," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 533-547.
    6. Colnet Bénédicte & Josse Julie & Varoquaux Gaël & Scornet Erwan, 2022. "Causal effect on a target population: A sensitivity analysis to handle missing covariates," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 372-414, January.
    7. Brice Corgnet & Mark DeSantis & Christoph Siemroth, 2023. "Algorithmic Trading, Price Efficiency and Welfare: An Experimental Approach," Working Papers 2313, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    8. Jean Philippe Décieux & Alexandra Mergener, 2021. "German Labor Emigration in Times of Technological Change: Occupational Characteristics and Geographical Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-18, January.
    9. Hao, Shiming, 2021. "True structure change, spurious treatment effect? A novel approach to disentangle treatment effects from structure changes," MPRA Paper 108679, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Jamie Bologna Pavlik & Maria Tackett, 2022. "The Effect of Presidential Particularism on Economic Well-Being: A County-Level Analysis," Public Finance Review, , vol. 50(2), pages 135-168, March.
    11. Wang-Ly, Nathan & Newell, Ben R., 2022. "Allowing early access to retirement savings: Lessons from Australia," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 716-733.
    12. Shakil, Golam Saroare & Marsh, Thomas L., 2021. "One Instrument to Rule Them All?," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 314047, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Ahrens, Achim & Hangartner, Dominik & Casalis, Marine & Sánchez, Rodrigo, 2023. "Cash-Based Interventions Improve Multidimensional Integration Outcomes of Venezuelan Immigrants," SocArXiv 5sh8a, Center for Open Science.
    14. Xueli Wang & Yen Lee & Xiwei Zhu & Ayse Okur Ozdemir, 2022. "Exploring the Relationship Between Community College Students’ Exposure to Math Contextualization and Educational Outcomes," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(2), pages 309-336, March.
    15. Philipp Kugler, 2022. "Wage expectation, information and the decision to become a nurse," IAW Discussion Papers 135, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    16. Vitor Possebom, 2021. "Crime and Mismeasured Punishment: Marginal Treatment Effect with Misclassification," Papers 2106.00536, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    17. Betts, Alexander & Flinder Stierna, Maria & Omata, Naohiko & Sterck, Olivier, 2023. "Refugees welcome? Inter-group interaction and host community attitude formation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    18. Jetter, Michael & Stockley, Kieran, 2023. "On the Empirical Validity of "Gendered Reactions to Terrorist Attacks Can Cause Slumps not Bumps" (Holman et al., 2022)," I4R Discussion Paper Series 41, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    19. Aoyagi, Keitaro & Sawada, Yasuyuki & Shoji, Masahiro, 2022. "Irrigation infrastructure and trust: Evidence from natural and lab-in-the-field experiments in rural communities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    20. Dela‐Dem Fiankor & Fabio G. Santeramo, 2023. "Revisiting the impact of per‐unit duties on agricultural export prices," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(3), pages 1472-1492, September.

    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:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:4:p:173-:d:789711. 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.