Parents' perceived stress and children's adjustment during the COVID‐19 lockdown in Italy: The mediating role of family resilience

• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Francesca Giordano,Athena Daniilidou,Alessandra Cipolla,Marta Landoni,Maria Platsidou
• Date: 01 February 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12716

RESEARCH

Parents’perceived stress and children’s adjustment

during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: The

mediating role of family resilience

Francesca Giordano

1

|Athena Daniilidou

2

|Alessandra Cipolla

1

|

Marta Landoni

3

|Maria Platsidou

2

1

Resilience Research Unit, Department of

Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro

Cuore, Milan, Italy

2

Department of Educational and Social Policy,

University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

3

Center of Research in Developmental and

Educational Dynamics (C.R.I.d.e.e),

Department of Psychology, Università

Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

Correspondence

Francesca Giordano, Resilience Research

Unit, Department of Psychology, Università

Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli 1,

20121, Milan Italy.

Email: francesca.giordano@unicatt.it

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore the role of family

resilience in the relationship between parents’psychologi-

cal stress and their perceptions of children’s emotional and

behavioral symptoms during the COVID-19 lockdown in

Italy.

Background: The COVID-19 lockdown threatened the

well-being of parents, with a potentially cascading effect

on children’s adjustment. However, the negative impact of

parents’stress on children’s well-being may be attenuated

in resilient families.

Method: During the Italian lockdown, an online survey

was administered to 649 parents of at least one child aged

between 5 and17 years. Respondentscompleted the survey

themselves and their child(ren). The Perceived Stress Scale,

the Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire, and the

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire were administered

to parents.

Results: Results show that family resilience is a key mecha-

nism in the association of parents’perceived stress with

their perceptions of children’s emotional symptoms,

prosocial behavior, and hyperactivity and that only par-

ents’marital status moderates this relationship.

Conclusion: The intervening role of family resilience

emphasizes the need to empower parents and families dur-

ing the pandemic crisis.

Implications: By strengthening family resilience, family

resources maybe strengthened to meet new challenges

more effectively.

Received: 5 February 2021Revised: 24 August 2021Accepted: 10 December 2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12716

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use,

distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

© 2022 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:7–22. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 7

KEYWORDS

behavioral problems, children, COVID-19 pandemic, emotional

problems, family resilience, parents, perceived stress

The 2019 novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) first appeared in Wuhan, China, and

quickly spread across Europe and the rest of the world (Zhou et al., 2020). Italy was the first

country in Europe to confront the COVID-19 outbreak. To contain the spread of the virus, the

Italian government announced a national lockdown on March 10, 2020, which imposed social

distancing measures, including home confinement, school closure, temporary closure of nones-

sential businesses and shops, and smart working from home.

The impact of the lockdown measures on psychological well-being among Chinese (Wang

et al., 2020) and Italian (Rossi et al., 2020) populations has been widely reported; emerging

stressors linked to the pandemic and lockdown include the initial lack of treatment or vac-

cines, lack of preparedness and response, and the pervasive uncertainty, all of which caused

high levels of psychosocial stress. Although most of the studies carried out during the

COVID-19 lockdown assessed psychological outcomes in the general population, emerging

studies explore the specific effects on parents and children (Spinelli et al., 2020). In this con-

text, the present study was planned to investigate parents’psychological stress and children’s

emotional and behavioral symptoms in a sample of Italian families dealing with the COVID-

19 pandemic.

PARENTAL STRESS DURING LOCKDOWN AND CHILD-RELATED

OUTCOMES

During the lockdown, life conditions changed suddenly and significantly, especially in families.

In this regard, several studies detected common acute stressors facing caregivers as they were

called to take on the role of their child’s teacher while also attending to their everyday job and

home commitments. While parents of school-age children were challenged with homeschooling,

those with preschoolers were charged with nurturing and promoting positive development

(Wang et al., 2020), often while working full time, given that educational and daycare services

were closed, babysitters and grandparents were not available, and contact with peers was not

allowed. Many parents suddenly found themselves working at home and often struggled to find

time and space to work within the family environment. This situation significantly increased the

risk of parents experiencing stress and negative emotions, with a potentially cascading effect on

children’s well-being (Sprang & Silman, 2013).

Guided by family systems theory (Fiese et al., 2019), several studies highlight that a pile-up

of internal and external stressors can overwhelm the family and heighten the risk for negative

outcomes (Östberg & Hagekull, 2013). In the wake of COVID-19, contextual risks such as

social disruption, financial insecurity, caregiving burden, and confinement-related stress are

likely to permeate the structures and processes of family systems. Accordingly, stressors that

impede the functioning of one family member may lead to changes in the functioning of all fam-

ily members. Therefore, to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the well-being of families, it

is central to consider the potential effects of the pandemic on the entire family and understand

the ways in which the functioning of one family member can impact the functioning of other

family members (Prime et al., 2020).

Several studies have reported the central role played by parents in shaping disaster out-

comes for their children (Dallaire et al., 2006). Higher levels of negative disaster outcomes

have been detected among children of highly distressed caregivers (Kerns et al., 2014);

other studies reported parental stress as the main risk factor related to the mental health of

8FAMILY RELATIONS