Archives of Hellenic Medicine

Last update:

16-Sep-2021

Arch Hellen Med, 38(5), September-October 2021, 651-656

ORIGINAL PAPER

Consequences of the parental emotional burden during the COVID-19 pandemic

I. Grigoropoulos,¹ M. Tekelidou²
^¹Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, International Hellenic University, Thessaloniki,
²Postgraduate Programme Studies "Management and Organization of Educational Units",
Department of Organization Management, Marketing and Tourism, International Hellenic University, Thessaloniki, Greece

OBJECTIVE Το examine the emotional burden of parents during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its consequences.

METHOD The research sample consisted of 278 parents of school-age children (4–18 years). Of the participants in the survey, 62 (22.3%) were fathers and 216 (77.7%) were mothers. The data collection took place from 1–15 September 2020, using the following tools, completed by the parents: The Fear of Covid-19 Scale (FCV-19S), the Profile of Mood States-Short (POMS-S) and the Greek version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Hel), a demographic questionnaire.

RESULTS The results showed that negative emotional mood, behavioral and adjustment difficulties of the children, male gender and the number of children in the family of the participants were statistically significantly associated with dysfunctional parent-child interaction.

CONCLUSIONS This study provides evidence of the challenges that families may face, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key words: Children, Emotional burden, Pandemic, Parents.