COVID-19: how to support vulnerable friends and family during the coronavirus pandemic

A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to EO, ZWxpc2Eub3BwZXJtYW5uQHVuaS1iYW1iZXJnLmRl. The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because the data are currently reserved for scientific qualifications (Ph.D. and masters’ theses). To do this, we need further research to give a clear picture of where requirements remain unfulfilled, and what the special needs of individual families are. Still, particularly noteworthy here are the results for large families.

State and Local Health Departments

support for families during covid

Therefore, current study aimed to analyze the role of coping strategies, family support, and social support in improving the MH of the students by collecting evidence from post COVID-19. The studies have shown that the pandemic and the factors related to it like quarantine, social distancing, and travel restrictions have been proven stressful for the students and other communities. The current article discussed the literature on family and PSS and MH of the individuals after COVID-19 pandemic keeping in view the stress-health theory.

Family emotional support will moderate the negative financial impact of COVID‐19 on young adults’ financial wellbeing (H2a) and positive outlook (H2b). Although both COR theory and the extant literature provide broad evidence on the importance of social support as a valued resource for coping with stress, the benefits may depend on the type of support offered. Based on mixed findings on parental financial support, we investigated the independent effects of both types of support. Although extended parental financial support is more prevalent for contemporary young adults, empirical studies provide mixed evidence on its effects. An extensive body of literature consistently finds that family emotional support is beneficial to young adults (Koestner et al., 2020; Lefkowitz, 2005). The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, SS.

support for families during covid

Interactions between coping strategies of family clusters before and FQOL factors during the pandemic

support for families during covid

In line with COR theory, it seems reasonable that young adults from higher social status families may have access to more resources or more of a safety net to withstand the impact in the short term (Friedline & Rauktis, 2014; Luhr, 2018). Our findings that sociodemographic factors play a role in coping with and possibly rebounding from economic shocks reflect the fact that while the disruptions due to the pandemic were widespread, the effects were not experienced uniformly (OECD, 2022). Although our data do not permit investigating the impact of COVID‐19 as a broader family process (McCubbin & Patterson, 1983), this possibility would be an important line of future inquiry. For example, in a study of young adults in Italy during COVID‐19 (Germani et al., 2020) young adults reported the lowest level of concern about the personal impact of COVID‐19, and higher levels of concern regarding their role as a possible asymptomatic carrier and social worries. Coaching and counseling interventions focusing on parent–adult–child interactions that address communications about difficult circumstances (i.e., job loss, economic shocks) may be of value for young adults and adults who care for them.

This study aimed to identify changes in families’ coping strategies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate interactions between pre-pandemic coping profiles and FQOL 2025 US Tornadoes and Severe Storms relief before and during the pandemic. The FQOL Scale assesses parent perception regarding aspects of FQOL and various facets of functioning and cohesion in families with and without disabled family members 33, 45. The F-COPES draws upon the coping dimensions of the resiliency model of family adjustment and adaptation, which integrates the factors of pile-up, family resources, and meaning/perception.

  • Crucially, where face-to-face work is the best option for children and families, this has been restored.
  • This signifies the severity of COVID-19’s impact on adolescent mental health, above and beyond any increase in depression typically seen in development (e.g., Salk et al., 2016).
  • In order to provide guidance for future investigations, we depict these pathways in a conceptual model (Figure 3), including the pathways representing the impact of the pandemic on mental health and family relationships reported on in this paper.
  • Even those parents who were able to work from home still had to compensate for the missing hours of childcare within the family.
  • For excess mortality, increases in support are related to higher likelihood of increasing depressive feelings as excess mortality reaches higher levels.

In light of changing social and economic conditions and the consequent worldwide lengthening transition from adolescent to adult status (e.g., Fingerman, 2017; Minkin et al., 2024; OECD, 2019), continued parental support to young adults has become more common. The upheaval due to the pandemic has had far‐reaching consequences on the physical and mental health of countless citizens (Dai et al., 2021). The significant interaction between COVID‐19 financial impact and family emotional support on young adults’ positive outlook reveals that the benefit of family emotional support is more evident when the negative financial impact is low or moderate.

support for families during covid

This gender gap has implications for how parenting quality of mothers and fathers may be differentially impacted by psychosocial and pandemic-related stressors. Unmet childcare needs also emerge as predictive of lower-quality parenting including elevated dysfunctional parent-child interactions, perceptions of difficult child temperament, and reductions in supporting positive behavior and setting limits. Similar to depression, we expect the impacts of relationship distress to have outsized effects on parent-child function during this time, given that young children are likely to be exposed to a higher proportion than usual while receiving less/no out-of-home care. Marital or co-parent relationship distress is highlighted as a risk factor for a number of low-quality parenting factors, including dysfunctional parent-child interactions and reduced proactive parenting and limit setting.