Impact of COVID-19-related Stress on Preschool Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Problem Behaviors: The Indirect Effect of Mother’s Depression and Parenting Behavior

Young Sun Joo and Woon Kyung Lee ()
Additional contact information
Young Sun Joo: Myongji University
Woon Kyung Lee: Ewha Womans University

Child Indicators Research, 2022, vol. 15, issue 6, No 7, 2093-2113

Abstract: Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting families and children worldwide. Experiencing the pandemic leads to stress in families resulting from fear of infection and social isolation derived from social distancing. For families raising preschoolers, the prolonged closure of childcare centers puts additional childcare burden on family members, especially mothers. Due to the limited research exploring the impact of COVID-19 on preschool children’s problem behaviors, this study examines the association between stress due to COVID-19 and preschool children’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors related to mother’s depression and parenting behavior. The study sample included data collected from 316 South Korean mothers raising preschool-aged children aged 3 to 5. The study findings suggest that mother’s COVID-19 stress was indirectly associated with preschool children’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors resulting from the mother’s depression and parenting behaviors, although the direct effect of COVID-19 stress on preschool children’s outcomes was not statistically significant. Increase in mother’s COVID-19 stress was associated with increase in depression, and sequentially decreased positive parenting behaviors, which in turn resulted in preschool children’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. The study findings highlight the need to focus on enhancing mental health of mothers and preschool children’s adjustment by implementing supportive interventions to reduce the adverse impacts of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 mother; Depression; Parenting behavior; Internalizing problem behavior; Externalizing problem behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-022-09946-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:chinre:v:15:y:2022:i:6:d:10.1007_s12187-022-09946-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... f-life/journal/12187

DOI: 10.1007/s12187-022-09946-0

Access Statistics for this article

Child Indicators Research is currently edited by Asher Ben-Arieh

More articles in Child Indicators Research from Springer, The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().