Family experiences of ambiguous loss during COVID‐19

• Published date: 01 February 2024
• Author: Abagail L. Horton,Beth S. Russell,Rachel R. Tambling,Hannah Elias,Madison Mas
• Date: 01 February 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12918

RESEARCH

Family experiences of ambiguous loss during

COVID-19

AbagailL.Horton| BethS.Russell| RachelR.Tambling |

Hannah Elias|Madison Mas

Human Development & Family Sciences,

University of Connecticut, Human

Development & Family Sciences, Storrs, CT

Correspondence Abagail L. Horton, Human

Development & Family Sciences, University of

Connecticut, Human Development & Family

Sciences, 348 Mansfield Road, Unit 1058,

Storrs, CT 06269-1058, USA.

Email: abagail.horton@uconn.edu

Abstract

Objective: The present study provides descriptive results

on parents’mental health, ambiguous loss, stress, and

parent–child relationship as well as child stress and chil-

dren’s emotion regulation abilities. Additionally, we pre-

sent initial psychometric results and preliminary regression

findings from a quantitative ambiguous loss measure.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to more

than one million deaths in the United States and subse-

quent mental health difficulties for parents and children.

Method: Data were collected from 134 participants

(M

ParentAge

=39.1 years;54.5%women;M

ChildAge

=

9.4 years)inearlyMay2021.Analysesexaminedgroup

differences of longitudinal findings over a year-long

period, parents’gender, and financial needs.

Results: Moderate levels of COVID-19–specific stress as well as

general stress in both parents and children were found. Women

reported higher levels of closeness among the parent–child dyad,

and parents whose financial needs were not met reported signifi-

cantly higher levels of anxiety and depression. A liner regression

indicated that 44.3% of the variance in ambiguous loss can be

explained by COVID-19 specific stress and depression.

Conclusion: Individuals and families are still experiencing

difficulties after the COVID-19 pandemic, as seen through

the descriptives presented. Additionally, ambiguous loss

can be predicted by these experiences.

Implications: Long-term information about individual and

family experiences after a year of the COVID-19 pandemic

highlights important experiences of generalized stress in

both parents and children.

KEYWORDS

ambiguous loss, COVID-19, mental health, parenting, stress

Received: 6 July 2022Revised: 11 February 2023Accepted: 1 May 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12918

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

116 Family Relations. 2024;73:116–132.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

As the pandemic has endured, this work seeks to understand the disruptions, losses, and other

impacts felt nationwide. COVID-19 is a highly contagious and transmissible respiratory disease

that continues to impact individuals and families across the globe. COVID-19 cases first started

appearing in the United States in the early months of 2020 (Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention [CDC], n.d.). The nation has seen more than 81 million cases of COVID-19 and

more than1million deaths(CDC,n.d.). At thetime ofthiswriting, 2 years hadpassed since

the emergence of COVID-19, the United States continued to experience interruptions in every-

day life as well as continued mental health challenges at the individual and family level. There

is evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic uniquely impacted families. For example, when edu-

cational institutions dismissed students to virtual modalities, parents were abruptly left to moni-

tor online schooling. Now, parents are asked to provide instructional support when their

children cannot attend in-person school by dint of illness or COVID-19 exposure. The pan-

demic also led to increased proximity and time spent together in one’s home. Families had to

navigate the unprecedented pandemic while continuing to attend to individual and family well-

being. A year after the pandemic first arrived in the United States, families were still experienc-

ing novel situations and now have the added stress of everchanging rules and regulations set

forth by the federal government, local governances, and community, such as mask mandates

and vaccine requirements. These stressors are detectable at both the individual (e.g., parent and

child) and family levels (Russell et al., 2020).

INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY FUNCTIONING DURING COVID-19

The impact of COVID-19 on parents’well-being is well documented (Russell et al., 2021).

COVID-19 has uniquely affected parents’mental health as parents experienced increased levels

of depression, anxiety, and stress (Calvano et al., 2022). For example, Park et al. (2020) found

that individuals who were young, women, and caregivers of children in their homes during the

pandemic had an increased stress exposure and reported higher levels of stressfulness. In addi-

tion to elevated levels of general stress, early research on the pandemic suggests that parents

experienced novel stressors due to the pandemic (e.g., uncertainties generated by economic, edu-

cation, and childcare shutdowns as well as those driven by social distancing and quarantine

guidelines), demonstrating the powerful influence of uncertainty on mental health outcomes

(Park et al., 2020). The relationship between parents’experiences of ambiguous loss and mental

health outcomes during the pandemic may be bidirectional in nature and should be explored in

future research.

Individual differences in how stressful these uncertainties have been linked to preexisting

social inequalities in that families with personal or social vulnerabilities before the pandemic

reported exacerbated stress and mental health outcomes (Balenzano et al., 2020). Banford-Wit-

ting’s team (2023) concluded that resource loss (i.e., the loss of objects, employment, relation-

ship quality, personal characteristics, and energy) was a predictor of posttraumatic stress during

the pandemic. Moreover, parents with financial needs during the pandemic reported higher

levels of depression and anxiety (Wilson et al., 2020). When discussing parents’mental health

outcomes during the pandemic, gender differences are also evident. Women caregivers reported

higher levels of distress, anxiety, and caregiver burden (Borb

as et al., 2021). Moreover, authors

reported gendered differences in the pattern of influences that COVID-19 specific stresshad on

caregivers’mental health. Research suggests that mental health symptoms may be exacerbated

due to increased levels of caregiving burden. Specifically, high levels of stress and caregiver bur-

den may lead to parents sacrificing their own well-being to meet additional caregiving needs of

their children. This is most often noted among mothers who frequently assume the primary

caregiving role (Martinez-Marcos & De la Cuesta-Benjumea, 2015).

AFTER A YEAR OF COVID-19117