Help Needs among Parents and Families in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown in Germany

Christiane Baldus (), Simone Franz and Rainer Thomasius
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Christiane Baldus: German Centre for Addiction Research in Childhood and Adolescence, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
Simone Franz: German Centre for Addiction Research in Childhood and Adolescence, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
Rainer Thomasius: German Centre for Addiction Research in Childhood and Adolescence, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-18

Abstract: Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by multiple disruptions in the everyday lives of families. Previous research has underlined the negative impact of the pandemic on stress among parents and identified factors related to heightened levels of stress. Yet, several potential stressors have not been taken into account. Moreover, little is known about how general and pandemic-related stressors impacted help-seeking intentions for personal or family problems. Methods: We recruited N = 602 parents and their children ( n = 101) for a cross-sectional online survey on parent, child and family well-being, stress and help need after the first wave of COVID-19 infections in Germany. Data were analysed using multinomial regression analyses to predict family help need, taking into account pre-pandemic help-seeking. Results: Parents showed high levels of stress, which were associated with pre-pandemic mental health, family functioning, pandemic related worries about finances, household workload and health worries. While 76.2% of families reported no during-pandemic help need, 11.3% reported a help need before and during the pandemic and 12.5% of families without prior help needs reported a new help need during the pandemic. Conclusions: The results of the present study underline the need for help service providers to adapt their offers.

Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; family functioning; family help need; parent mental health; pandemic-related stress; child health-related quality of life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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