ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
During the Covid-19 outbreak, parents, particularly working mothers, encountered difficulties balancing their careers and home related tasks especially when dealing with children at home throughout the pandemic. Challenges in coping with various issues during the pandemic have been found to play an important role in impacting parent-child relationships. The present study examines the relationships between perceived impact of Covid-19 pandemic, parental stress, harsh parenting and parent-child relationship quality among working mothers in Malaysia. A total of 295 working mothers with at least one child aged three to twelve years old, participated in this study. The findings revealed that perceived impact of Covid-19 pandemic, parental stress and harsh-parenting were significantly related with each other and were critical predictors of parent-child relationship quality. Parental stress was found to be the strongest predictor, implying the importance of mental health in helping parents to survive the ordeal during the difficult time. Fundamentally, working mothers who reported a higher impact of Covid-19 pandemic, higher parental stress, and practiced a high level of harsh parenting tend to have poor parent-child relationship quality. Stress management is deemed critical in helping parents to perform their roles and preventing negative consequences on parent-child relationships.
Bauch, J., Hefti, S., Oeltjen, L., Perez, T., Swenson, C. C., Furstenau, U., Rhiner, B., & Schmid, M. (2022). Multisystemic therapy for child abuse and neglect: Parental stress and parental mental health as predictors of change in child neglect. Child Abuse & Neglect, 126, 105489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105489
Belsky, J. (1984). The Determinants of Parenting: A Process Model. Child Development, 55(1), 83–96. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129836
Berry, J. O., & Jones, W. H. (1995). The Parental Stress Scale: Initial psychometric evidence. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 12(3), 463–472.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407595123009.
Brown, S. M., Doom, J. R., Lechuga-Pena, S., Watamura, S. E., & Koppels, T. (2020). Stress and parenting during the global covid-19 pandemic. Child Abuse & Neglect, 110, 104699. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104699
Chung, G., Lanier, P., & Wong, P. Y. J. (2020). Mediating Effects of Parental Stress on Harsh Parenting and Parent-Child Relationship during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic in Singapore. Journal of Family Violence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-020-00200-1
Conger, R. D., Conger, K. J., Elder, G. H., Lorenz, F. O., Simons, R. L., & Whitbeck, L. B. (1992). A Family Process Model of Economic Hardship and Adjustment of Early Adolescent Boys. Child Development, 63(3), 526–541. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131344
Conway, L. G., Woodard, S. R., & Zubrod, A. (2020). Social Psychological Measurements of COVID-19: Coronavirus Perceived Threat, Government Response, Impacts, and Experiences Questionnaires. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/z2x9a.
Deater-Deckard, K. (1998). Parenting stress and child adjustment: Some old hypotheses and new questions. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 5(3), 314–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.1998.tb00152.x
Driscoll, K., & Pianta, R. C. (2011). Mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of conflict and closeness in parent-child relationships during early childhood. Journal of early childhood and infant psychology, 7, 1–24. ProQuest Central.
Gadermann, A. C., Thomson, K. C., Richardson, C. G., Gagne, M., Mcauliffe, C., Hirani, S., & Jenkins, E. (2021). Examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on family mental health in Canada: findings from a national cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1136/BMJOPEN-2020-042871
Gershoff, E. T., Sattler, K. M. P., & Ansari, A. (2018). Strengthening causal estimates for links between spanking and Children’s externalizing behavior problems. Psychological Science, 29(1), 110–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617729816.
Hadjicharalambous, D., Athanasiadi-Charchanti, D., and Demetriou, L. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19 social isolation measures on the resilience and quality of life of working mothers. Social Education Research, 41–51. https://doi.org/10.37256/ser.212021619
Jackson, A. P., & Choi, J. K. (2018). Parenting Stress, Harsh Parenting, and Children’s Behavior. Journal of Family Medicine & Community Health, 5(3), 1150.
Jang, M., Brown, R., & Park, M. (2021). Mediating effect of the parent-child relationship on the association between Parenting Stress and children’s eating behaviors. BMC Public Health, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12052-5
Kirwin, M. A., and Ettinger, A. K. (2022). Working Mothers during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study on mental health status and associations with the receipt of employment benefits. BMC Public Health, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12468-z.
Kumaraswamy, N., & Othman, A. (2011). Corporal Punishment Study: A Case in Malaysia. Psychology, 2, 24-28. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2011.21004.
Liu, S., Zhai, F., & Gao, Q. (2020). Parental stress and parenting in Chinese immigrant families: The mediating role of Social Support. Child & Family Social Work, 25(S1), 135–148. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12734
MacKenzie, M. J., Nicklas, E., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Waldfogel, J. (2015). Spanking and children’s externalizing behavior across the first decade of life: Evidence for transactional processes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44(3), 658–669.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0114-y
Park, J. L., & Johnston, C. (2020). The Relations Among Stress, Executive Functions, and Harsh Parenting in Mothers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 48(5), 619–632. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802- 020-00622-x
Prime, H., Wade, M., & Browne, D. T. (2020). Risk and resilience in family well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. American Psychologist, 75(5), 631–643.
https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000660
Ravindranath, H. D., Kartar Singh, J. S., Arumugam, T., & Kularajasingam, J. (2021). Exploring the challenges faced by working mothers and the perceived factors to retain them in the private education sector. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 11(2), 17. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v11i2.18457
Romero, E., Lopez-Romero, L., Dominguez-Alvarez, B., Villar, P., & Gomez-Fraguela, J. A. (2020). Testing the effects of covid-19 confinement in Spanish children: The role of parents’ distress, emotional problems and specific parenting. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(19), 6975.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17196975
Russell, B. S., Hutchison, M., Tambling, R., Tomkunas, A. J., & Horton, A. L. (2020). Initial Challenges of Caregiving During COVID-19: Caregiver Burden, Mental Health, and the Parent–Child Relationship. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 51(5), 671–682. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01037-
Sabil, S., & Marican, S. (2010) The human capital of dual career women in Sarawak: The impact of working time towards work family conflict. In: International Conference on Sustainable Community Development 2010 Marriot Hotel Putrajaya: Malaysia. (Unpublished)
Shanmugam, H., Juhari, J. A., Nair, P., Chow, S. K., & Ng, C. G. (2020). Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health in Malaysia: A Single Thread of Hope. Malaysian Journal of Psychiatry, 29(1), 78–84.
Sim, T. N., & Ong, L. P. (2005). Parent physical punishment and child aggression in a Singapore Chinese preschool sample. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67(1), 85–99.
Thavarajah, R., Mohandoss, A. A., & Ranganathan, K. (2020). Effect of COVID-19 Home Confinement on Family Well-Being. Journal of Orofacial Sciences, 12(2), 69–79. https://doi.org/10.4103/jofs.jofs_155_20
UNICEF. (2019). Global databases: Violent discipline. Retrieved January 30, 2020, from https://data.unicef.org
Uzun, H., Karaca, N. H., & Metin, ?. (2021). Assesment of parent-child relationship in covid-19 pandemic. Children and Youth Services Review, 120, 105748.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105748
Vincent, K. (2021). The Role of Parents’ Negative Emotional Symptoms. Time Homebound, and Parent-Infant Interactions During the COVID-19 Pandemic. 3–4.
Whitehead, B. R., & Torossian, E. (2021). Older Adults' Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Stresses and Joys. The Gerontologist, 61(1), 36–47. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnaa126
Yokoyama, I., & Takaku, R. (2020). How serious was it? the impact of preschool closure on Mothers’ psychological distress: Evidence from the first COVID-19 outbreak. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3756638
Yunos, N., & Talib, J. (2009). Mothers at work: What happen to children? International Review of Business Research Papers, 5(3): 179-188.
Yusuf, M. S., and Sim, C. C. (2016). Relationship between parenting satisfaction and parenting styles of working mothers in a university in Malaysia. Psikoislamedia: Jurnal Psikologi, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.22373/psikoislamedia.v1i2.915
N/A
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode