COVID‐19 and Mental Health of Young Adult Children in China: Economic Impact, Family Dynamics, and Resilience

• Published date: 01 December 2021
• Author: Ming Cui,Peipei Hong
• Date: 01 December 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12573

M C  P HFlorida State University

COVID-19 and Mental Health of Young Adult

Children in China: Economic Impact, Family

Dynamics, and Resilience

Objective: The current study aimed to examine

the economic impact of COVID-19 virus on fam-

ily dynamics and college-age children’s mental

health in China and to identity personal and

social or relational resilience factors that could

buffer the negative consequences of COVID-19.

Background: Since an outbreak of COVID-19

was rst reported in China in December 2019,

it has profoundly changed the lives of families

and children of all ages. In particular, it has cre-

ated challenges among families with college-age

young adult children.

Method: Using a sample of 484 college students

from 21 universities in China, an online survey

design was utilized to obtain information from

these students on their family demographics and

economic situation, parent–child interactions,

and individual well-being during COVID-19.

Results: Results from structural equation mod-

eling suggested that family income loss due to

COVID-19 was related to economic pressure.

Economic pressure was associated with neg-

ative interactions between parents and young

adult children, which wereassociated with prob-

lems in young adult children’s mental health

(i.e., anxiety and depressive symptoms). Further,

self-control was found to buffer the association

Department of Human Development and Family Science,

Florida State University, 216 Sandels Building, 120 Convo-

cation Way,Tallahassee, FL 32306 (mcui@fsu.edu).

Key Words: COVID-19, economic impact, mental health,

parent–child interactions, young adult children.

between family income loss and economic pres-

sure, and respectfor family wasfound to weaken

the association between economic pressure and

negative parent–child interactions.

Conclusion: Findings supported the hypotheses

of the negative impacts of COVID-19 on young

adult children’s mental health and the resilience

factors that buffered the negative impacts.

Implications: Implications to family resear-

chers, family life educators, practitioners, and

policymakers were discussed.

B

In December 2019, China reported an outbreak

of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in

the city of Wuhan (World Health Organiza-

tion, WHO, 2020). Since then, COVID-19 has

quickly spread throughout China, as well as the

rest of the world (Mahase, 2020). According to

the WHO (2020), by October 2020 China had

reported over 90,000 conrmed cases. There

were more than 8 million cases in the United

States with over 218,000 deaths. Worldwide,the

virus had infected over 40 million people with

more than 1 million deaths. With the recent third

wave of COVID-19 hitting many countries,

little is known about how long the situation

will last. More important to family researchers,

COVID-19 has profoundly changed the lives

of families and children of all ages around the

world. The current study aimed to examine

the economic impact of COVID-19 on family

dynamics and college-age children’s mental

1358Family Relations 70 (December 2021): 1358–1368

DOI:10.1111/fare.12573