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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on child functioning have been especially pronounced among low-income families. Protective factors, including sensitive reminiscing and sufficient family resources, may reduce the negative effects of the pandemic on child adjustment.
OBJECTIVE: The current study investigated how family resources during the pandemic, race, maltreatment, and pre-pandemic involvement in an emotion socialization intervention (M(years ago) = 4.37, SD = 1.36) were associated with child internalizing symptoms during the pandemic. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The study utilized longitudinal data following 137 maltreating and low-income nonmaltreating mother-child dyads (M(age) = 9.08, SD = 1.88; 54.7% Male).
METHODS: Mother-child dyads engaged in a randomized controlled trial of the Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET; Valentino et al., 2019) intervention prior to the pandemic. Dyads discussed shared, past emotional experiences, and during the pandemic, mothers reported on their family resources and their child's internalizing symptoms. A path analysis examined the effects of family resources, race, maltreatment, and the RET intervention on child internalizing symptoms.
RESULTS: Family resources during the pandemic were significantly and inversely associated with child internalizing symptoms, b = -0.07, SE = 0.02, p < .01. There was a significant indirect effect of RET on child internalizing symptoms through sensitive reminiscing and a prior assessment of child maladjustment (95% CI [-0.294, -0.001]).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest adequate family resources and sensitive maternal emotion socialization may be protective against child internalizing symptoms during the pandemic.
Language: en |