Findings

New Presentation (4/14/22):

Changes in Parenting During the On-going COVID-19 Pandemic

Covid-19 has been a difficult time for parents, from shifting all activities to home during the early days of the stay-at-home order to managing the differing policies around quarantine and mask wearing in more current times. Dr. Freisthler will report on three waves of data collection from the Central Ohio Family Life Study where geographic Ecological Momentary Assessment was used to ask parents about daily stress levels and parenting behaviors. Dr. Freisthler will look at how stress levels and parenting changed over time and how other at-the-moment characteristics affected parenting.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360017500_Changes_in_Parenting_During_the_On-going_COVID-19_Pandemic

New Presentation (4/6/22):

Changes in Alcohol Use and Parenting Behaviors during COVID-19: Using EMA to Assess Real-Time Behaviors

COVID-19 has been a difficult time for parents as they had to adjust to virtual school for their children, often while managing their own careers and the safety of those in their household. From my work, we know that mothers, especially those of young children, report higher levels of stress. However, these mothers also appear to be drinking more alcohol during this time frame as well. We will examine the changes in alcohol use and parenting at three time points, the first being the initial stay-at-home orders in Ohio, among a convenience sample of parents.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360017443_Changes_in_Alcohol_Use_and_Parenting_Behaviors_during_COVID-19_Using_EMA_to_Assess_Real-Time_Behaviors

Daily Stress and Use of Aggressive Discipline by Parents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

It’s no secret that the pandemic has been stressful for parents. Higher levels of stress were related to more use of aggressive discipline. However, aggressive discipline only made up about 4.5% of all parenting behaviors. You can read more about the study here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356584184_Daily_Stress_and_Use_of_Aggressive_Discipline_by_Parents_during_the_COVID-19_Pandemic

At-the-Moment Stress for Parents during COVID-19 Current Findings

In this study, we had parents complete 3 brief surveys each day for 14 days where we asked them to record their stress-level. Parents reported higher stress in the evenings, while working (possibly at home), during weekdays, and when they were with their children. You can read the full study here:

New Research in Child Abuse and Neglect journal

Stress, alcohol use, and punitive parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Alcohol use appears to have increased during COVID-19. Unfortunately, alcohol use is a risk factor for punitive parenting (e.g., spanking). Our works shows that alcohol use may act an accelerant when parents are under higher levels of stress. This means during COVID-19 children may be at higher risk for punitive discipline by parents.

Read the full article here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213421001630