Stressor pileup, family and couple relational well‐being, and parent stress during the COVID‐19 pandemic

• Published date: 01 February 2024
• Author: Anis Ben Brik,Natalie A. Williams,Sarah Barker Ladd
• Date: 01 February 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12982

RESEARCH

Stressor pileup, family and couple relational well-

being, and parent stress during the COVID-19

pandemic

Anis Ben Brik

1

|Natalie A. Williams

2

|Sarah Barker Ladd

3

1

College of Public Policy, Hamad Bin Khalifa

University, Doha, Qatar

2

Institute for Rehabilitation Science and

Engineering, Madonna Rehabilitation

Hospitals, Lincoln, NE

3

Department of Child, Youth and Family

Studies, College of Education and Human

Sciences, University of Nebraska–Lincoln,

Lincoln, NE

Correspondence

Natalie A. Williams, PhD, Institute for

Rehabilitation Sciences and Engineering,

Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals, 5401

South Street, Lincoln, NE 68506, USA.

Email:

Email: nwilliams@madonna.org

Abstract

Objective: The goal was to explore mechanisms linking

cumulative stressors with parent stress during COVID-19.

Background: Public health measures helped contain

COVID-19 spread, but disrupted family life and increased

parents’stress. Positive family relationships and beliefs

about the impact of challenges can foster psychological

resilience during adversity and may influence parents’

stress.

Method: Participants included parents from the

U.S. sample of the internet-based Covid Family Life Study

survey who indicated they were married or living with a

romantic partner (n=1,386). We tested a moderated

mediation model predicting parent stress from the pileup

of stressors, family and couple relationship satisfaction,

and parent resilience beliefs.

Results: High stressor pileup was associated with lower

family and couple relationship satisfaction, and higher

parent stress. Relationship satisfaction mediated the effect

of stressor pileup on parent stress, and the indirect effects

were similar across all levels of parent resilience beliefs.

Family satisfaction mediated the effect of stressor pileup

on parent stress only for parents with low resilience beliefs.

Parent resilience beliefs moderated the relations between

relational well-being and parent stress. Higher family satis-

faction was associated with lower stress for parents with

low and moderate levels of resilience beliefs, but higher

stress for parents with high resilience beliefs.

Conclusion: Relationship satisfaction may explain how

stressor pileup affects parent stress. Resilience beliefs may

affect the explanatory role of family satisfaction.

Received: 2 September 2022Revised: 20 November 2023Accepted: 28 November 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12982

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

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2023 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2024;73:95–115. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 95

Implications: Interventions to improve family satisfaction

may be most impactful for parents who have low confi-

dence in their ability to adapt to change and bounce back

from adversity.

KEYWORDS

adaptation, couple relationships satisfaction, family satisfaction, parent

resilience beliefs, pileup, stress buffer

States and communities implemented extraordinary precautionary restrictions in an effort to

reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the United States in the early phase of the pandemic

(Brooks et al., 2020). Public health mitigation measures required people to withdraw from

school, work, and social relationships (Zhang et al., 2020) resulting in profound disruption to

family life. The first school closure associated with COVID-19 in the United States occurred on

February 27, 2020, in Washington state and just over a month later all but one U.S. public

schooldistrictwereclosed.Approximately100,000 U.S.publicschoolsremainedclosedfor

more than 8 weeks, affecting over 50 million K–12 students (Zviedrite et al., 2021). Parents of

children enrolled in public school more commonly reported that their children received virtual

instruction during the 2020–2021 academic year (47.6%) compared with parents of children

enrolled in private school (20.3%; Verlenden et al., 2021).

The COVID-19 pandemic also upended the U.S. labor market. More than 20 million jobs

were lost between March and April 2020, and approximately 24% of employed adults trans-

itioned to work from home due to widespread shutdown (Bartik et al., 2020). Parents employed

in essential professions were required to continue working outside the home but without access

to critical family support resources such as school, day care services, sports teams, and after-

school activities. The COVID-19 outbreak resulted in increased unemployment. From

February 2020 to February 2021, a net 2.4 million women and 1.8 million men left the labor

force (Kochhar & Bennett, 2021). Consequently, parents navigated major work transitions and

adapted to changes in income while supporting and supervising their children through the day

(Garbe et al., 2020). A growing literature suggests that these major changes to family life sub-

stantially increased parents’stress during COVID-19 (Salari et al., 2020).

Prolonged periods of stress adversely affects parents’physical and mental health

(Schneiderman et al., 2005). Chronic stress can lead to parental burnout, characterized by an

overwhelming feeling of exhaustion related to the parenting role, emotional distancing from

children, and a reduced sense of parenting competence (Mikolajczak et al., 2019). These

sequelae of parent psychological stress could be temporary during COVID-19; however, the

pandemic has been associated with increases in maladaptive health behaviors, mental health

concerns, and relationship changes that could persist after acute stress resolves (Avena

et al., 2021; Feinberg et al., 2022; Gassman-Pines et al., 2020).

Conceptual framework

The present study aimed to understand how family relational factors and individuals’cog-

nitions about their ability to weather crises affected parents’experience of stress during

first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we examined whether family and cou-

ple relationship satisfaction explain the relationship between stressor pileup and parent

stress, and if the indirect effects of family and couple relationship satisfaction are different

at varying levels of parents’resilience beliefs. The ABC-X model was used to examine

these relationships. The ABC-X theoretical model of family stress and adaptation

96 FAMILY RELATIONS