Understanding family life during the COVID‐19 shutdown

• Published date: 01 April 2022
• Author: Britt Singletary,Kammi K. Schmeer,Kelly M. Purtell,Robin C. Sayers,Laura M. Justice,Tzu‐Jung Lin,Hui Jiang
• Date: 01 April 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12655

RESEARCH

Understanding family life during the COVID-19

shutdown

Britt Singletary

1

|Kammi K. Schmeer

2

|Kelly M. Purtell

1,3

|

Robin C. Sayers

1,4

|Laura M. Justice

1

|Tzu-Jung Lin

1,4

|Hui Jiang

1

1

Crane Center for Early Childhood

Research & Policy, The Ohio State University,

Columbus, Ohio, United States

2

Department of Sociology, The Ohio State

University, Columbus, Ohio, United States

3

Department of Human Sciences, The Ohio

State University, Columbus, Ohio,

United States

4

Department of Educational Studies, The Ohio

State University, Columbus, Ohio,

United States

Correspondence

Britt Singletary, Crane Center for Early

Childhood Research & Policy, The Ohio State

University, 175 E. 7th Avenue, Columbus, OH

43201, USA.

Email: singletary.31@osu.edu

Funding information

This work was supported in part by grants

from the National Institutes of Health

(1R01DC018009-01 and

3R01DC018009-01S1) and the Institute of

Education Sciences (R305A180004 and

R305N160024) to The Ohio State University.

Abstract

Objective: Our study investigates how changes in family

contexts were associated with child behaviors during

Ohio’s COVID-19 shutdown of early 2020.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused major eco-

nomic and social changes for families. Rapid research was

conducted to assess these changes and their potential

impacts on child behaviors.

Method: Using a diverse sample of families with children

aged birth to 9 years (N=559), we describe key economic

changes and parent-reported stressors experienced during

Ohio’s shutdown period. Then, we use regression models

to examine how these family conditions were associated

with child emotional distress and changes in sleep routines.

Results: When parents experienced more total COVID-19

pandemic-related stressors, they also reported that their

children exhibited more anxious and withdrawn, fearful,

acting out, and COVID-19 pandemic-related behav-

iors (p< 0.01).

Conclusion: Families and children living at home in Ohio

experienced significant stress during the shutdown. These

findings can be used to inform future studies of the social

and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic

for parents and children.

Implications: Families and children have experienced mul-

tiple stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Researchers and practitioners should continue to monitor

and support families and children to mitigate potential

lasting consequences.

KEYWORDS

child emotional distress, COVID-19 pandemic, economic stress, family

stress model, mental stress, parent–child well-being

Received: 22 October 2020Revised: 16 August 2021Accepted: 11 September 2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12655

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2022;71:475–493.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 475

As the global COVID-19 pandemic developed during Spring 2020, the rapid spread of SARS–

CoV-2 and related deaths led to government-mandated stay-at-home orders, business and school

closures, and social-distancing practices in many parts of the world (de Bruin et al.,2020;

Douglas et al., 2020). These sweeping economic and social changes were implemented with little

notice, leaving families to cope with unanticipated upheavals in their home and work environ-

ments. This sudden change in work and school accessibility changed the amount of time families

were spending together and the responsibilities parents managed. The school and home environ-

ments merged through virtual learning platforms. These changes potentially altered parenting

practices experienced by both school-age children, who were suddenly at home full-time, and non–

school-age children, who also felt the effects of changes in family routines and structures. Although

researchers and policymakers were tracking the epidemiological patterns of the pandemic, fewer

resources were allocated to examine how families were coping with the economic and social

changes occurring as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this article, we provide insight into understanding these changing conditions in families

with children living at home in Ohio during the stay-at-home order and school closure period

(a.k.a., the shutdown) via the COVID & Families Study (CFS). Through the CFS, we sought to

capture detailed information about children’s microsystem experiences and family activities, as

well as exosystem experiences related to parental work and related economic changes during

the shutdownperiod. Wefocused onfamilies withchildren agedbirth to9 years andassessed

multiple aspects of children’s well-being during this time. During early childhood, common

behavior problems linked to emotional distress include internalizing behaviors such as anxiety,

withdrawal, and fearfulness, as well as externalizing behaviors such as acting out

(e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2003). Additionally, changes to child sleep patterns can be linked to these

behavioral problems (Gregory & Sadeh, 2012). Problem behaviors expressed in early and mid-

dle childhood can be predictive of later behaviors in early adolescence (Bornstein et al., 2010),

suggesting that these behaviors may have long term consequences for social–emotional func-

tioning. Here, we focus on documenting economic changes and parent-reported stressors, and

their potential links with children’s emotional distress behaviors among families with children

aged birth to 9 years of age in urban areas of central Ohio during March–June 2020.

FAMILY CONTEXTS AND CHILD WELL-BEING

The family system is critical to early child development because this is the context in which chil-

dren experience their earliest interactions. Even as children approach school-age, interactions

with family members constitute critical proximal processes that shape children’s learning and

social development. However, the family context does not operate in a bubble, and interactions

within the home are influenced by macro-forces outside the home, such as the availability of

parental employment (e.g., Grzywacz & Marks, 2002). Given the myriad societal and economic

changes induced by the pandemic, we draw on a bioecological systems framework to identify

exosystem factors (i.e., family economic well-being: change to monthly income, change to

employment, and new use of assistance programs), microsystem factors (i.e., parent COVID-19

pandemic-related stress), and individual level functioning (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998).

The process–person–context–time (PPCT) elaboration of the bioecological model is particularly

useful because it emphasizes the importance of historical time and events for children’s

bioecological systems and related development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Rosa &

Tudge, 2013). During the COVID-19 pandemic, interactions among family members became a

large proportion of children’s proximal experiences as schools and childcare centers were closed

and many parents began working from home. Additionally, the pandemic changed the nature

of interactions within this context, as exosystem factors, such as job loss, may have led to an

476 FAMILY RELATIONS