Rochester psychologists have been awarded federal funding to study the pandemic鈥檚 long-term effects on family cohesion and child well-being.
About a year and a half after COVID-19 rapidly spread around the globe, scientists have begun to examine the pandemic鈥檚 long-term societal effects. 人妻少妇专区 psychologists and the University鈥檚 have been awarded a $3.1 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development () to study the pandemic鈥檚 implications for American families and parenting.听
The study鈥檚 principal coinvestigators, professors and , expect acute negative effects on family functioning and family cohesion to last for years, especially in families that already experienced high levels of difficulties prior to the pandemic.
While scientifically sound, measures to slow the pandemic鈥攕uch as stay-at-home orders, remote instruction, and limited public gatherings鈥攈ad negative repercussions on families.
鈥淭he pandemic has been extremely stressful for families with significant worries about the health of family members, financial instability, food uncertainty, social isolation, and increased caregiving burdens associated with having children at home,鈥� says Sturge-Apple, who is also the University鈥檚 vice provost and dean of graduate education. 鈥淭he study seeks to identify factors that helped families cope, in order to inform best interventions for families at risk.鈥�
How and why COVID amplifies family conflict
During the pandemic, the surged, with estimates ranging between a 21 to 35 percent increase. These statistics are particularly distressing in the context of , as documented in Davies and Sturge-Apple鈥檚 work, even before the pandemic.
鈥淏y following families before, during, and after the pandemic, we will be able to assess more precisely how and why COVID-19 may amplify conflict between parents that then spills over into the way they care for their children,鈥� says Davies. 鈥淥ur study will examine a number of different mechanisms at neurobiological, familial, and extrafamilial levels.鈥�
What helped secure the NICHD funding was the existence of a recent three-year family study at Mt. Hope Family Center immediately prior to the onset of the pandemic, which provides a baseline against which the additional COVID-19 stressors and effects can be measured. The teams plan on three additional annual waves of data collection.
Understanding the public health significance is crucial for developmental scientists, clinicians, and public policy advocates in order to develop evidence-based treatments and interventions that help struggling families.
The NICHD will award the grant funding over five years.
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