A bad time for kids in lockdown: The relationship between negative pandemic events, parenting stress, and maltreatment related parenting behaviors.

Background: To date, several studies have shown that parenting stress, a kind of role strain, is related to child maltreatment. However, few studies have examined how the effects of crises, such as negative pandemic-related events on the household, may be related to parenting stress and maltreatment-related behavior.

Objective: This study examines the impact of negative Covid-related events on parenting stress and parenting behaviors during a period that was likely to have been a peak point of stress for many parents during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Participants: Respondents were female caregivers (N = 720) of children under the age of six located in the Midwestern United States.

Results: Three or more Covid-related impacts on the household were positively associated with parenting stress (B = 0.177, p < 0.05). Parenting stress fully mediated the weak relationship between these impacts and maltreatment-related behavior. Mothers of different employment statuses, including those who were recently laid off or who chose to stay at home, did not have significantly different probabilities of parenting stress or maltreatment-related behaviors. Contrary to theory, similar null results were found across other socio-demographic variables.

Conclusions: These null findings suggest that crises have effects that encompass family systems, potentially raising parenting stress levels in many groups that are typically considered low-risk for child maltreatment. Results have implications for scholarship on parenting stress, the targeting of social supports to mothers of young children, and rapid interventions to reduce stress, such as the stimulus check relief program.