Research Article: Families Facing Pandemic Modifications of Everyday Life: A Mixed Study on Mothers’ and Children’s Emotional Reactions and Regulation Strategies
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic caused many enduring changes in the everyday life of families, with negative effects on parents’ and children’s wellbeing. However, there is a lack of studies in the literature exploring the emotional reactions and coping strategies of both mothers and children of different ages. Furthermore, most studies used only self-reports. This study aimed to identify the emotions and coping strategies of children, adolescents and their mothers and to verify the association between maternal and child wellbeing. A mixed-method design using interviews and questionnaires was applied to collect information on wellbeing (emotional reactions, behavioral/emotional problems) and coping strategies of both mothers (n = 65; M age = 42.17; SD = 4.40; M age = 41.63; SD = 4.48), and their children (n = 35, 8–10 year; n = 30, 11–13 year) during the second wave of the pandemic (December 2020). No differences between the groups emerged concerning the emotional reactions reported. In contrast, mothers and children of different ages reported different self-regulation and other-regulation strategies. Moreover, maternal strategies had different effects on children’s wellbeing. The integration of qualitative and quantitative results was informative to understand how families adapted to the radical changes of everyday life related to the pandemic. The implications for developing interventions in such similar stressful situations to promote family wellbeing are discussed.
Introduction:
Between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began, affecting the life of people all around the world with effects that are still present. On March 9th, the Italian population was forced to stay indoors to avoid the spread of this new virus. Families were forced to spend time in the same physical space for three months. Smart working and distance learning were introduced, school closures were compulsory and meetings in public spaces were forbidden. Some of these limitations and the…
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