Associations between parent-child relationship, and children's externalizing and internalizing symptoms, and lifestyle behaviors in China during the COVID-19 epidemic



Du, Fanxing, He, Li, Francis, Mark R, Forshaw, Mark, Woolfall, Kerry ORCID: 0000-0002-5726-5304, Lv, Qian, Shi, Lu and Hou, Zhiyuan
(2021) Associations between parent-child relationship, and children's externalizing and internalizing symptoms, and lifestyle behaviors in China during the COVID-19 epidemic. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 11 (1). 23375-.

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Abstract

To investigate associations between parent-child relationships, children's externalizing and internalizing symptoms, and lifestyle responses to the COVID-19 epidemic, we conducted an online survey of a random, representative sample of residents with children aged 3-17 years during mid-March 2020 in Wuhan and Shanghai, China. A total of 1655 parents and children were surveyed with a response rate of 80.1% in the survey. During the epidemic, the frequency of children enquiring about the epidemic (AOR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.06), parents explaining the epidemic to them (AOR = 2.87, 95% CI: 1.80, 4.58), parents expressing negative emotions in front of them (AOR = 2.62; 95% CI = 2.08-3.30), and parents with more irritable attitudes (AOR = 1.93; 95% CI = 1.33-2.81) were significantly associated with children's externalizing symptoms. For internalizing symptoms, significant associations were found with worse parent-child closeness (AOR = 2.93; 95% CI = 1.80-4.79), the frequency of parents expressing negative emotions in front of them (AOR = 2.64; 95% CI = 1.68, 4.12), and more irritable attitudes (AOR = 2.24; 95% CI = 1.42-3.55). We also found that each indicator of parent-child relationships had the significantly similar associations with children's lifestyle behaviors. These findings suggest that improving parents' attitudes towards their children and parent-child closeness during the epidemic, especially among parents with lower educational levels, are important to ensure the wellbeing of children.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Humans, Child Behavior, Emotions, Parent-Child Relations, Life Style, Age Factors, Adolescent, Child, Child, Preschool, China, Female, Male, COVID-19
Divisions: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 08 Mar 2022 17:14
Last Modified: 07 Feb 2024 14:22
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-02672-7
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3150375