RAPID: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Changes in the Stress Response: Identifying Risk and Resilience in Adults and Children

对于有幼儿的家庭来说，2019冠状病毒病大流行构成了一个主要的生活压力源，伴随着日常需求的增加，包括缺乏托儿服务、工作期望的改变、工作不安全感和社交距离。此外，人们还迫切关注这种疾病对家庭成员健康的直接和间接影响。大量的研究记录了家庭内部压力和不稳定的负面影响，特别是对儿童发展的影响。然而，关于可能保护儿童免受这种前所未有的压力源影响的因素的数据相对缺乏。目前的研究将评估影响家庭如何应对压力的风险和弹性因素，并确定促进儿童福祉的家庭特征和养育行为，重点关注那些来自社会经济弱势背景的儿童，他们受到这些前所未有的健康和社会稳定威胁的影响最大。调查流感大流行对美国家庭心理和生理功能影响的前瞻性研究，有可能极大地有助于我们理解儿童和成人如何应对压力。目前的研究将利用一项正在进行的关于有小孩的家庭压力和适应的纵向研究。这项研究将解决关于慢性压力源对心理调节的影响的基本问题，以及压力影响健康的生物学机制。重要的是，通过检查社会化模式和养育方式的变化，研究结果将强调父母的行为可能是保护性的。该研究采用多方法方法，在大流行早期和大约六个月后进行问卷调查、观察和生理评估。将这些数据与大流行开始前收集的数据进行比较，将有助于建立轨迹模型，并有可能测试调节和调节机制。该研究不仅将研究压力生理和幸福感的纵向变化和个体差异，还将研究家庭中的压力扩散，以及自我调节能力和积极的养育方式（包括情绪社会化）在多大程度上缓冲儿童的负面结果。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

For families with young children, the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a major life stressor that is accompanied by heightened daily demands, including lack of childcare, altered work expectations, job insecurity, and social distancing. All of these are compounded by pressing concerns about the direct and indirect impacts of the disease on family members’ health. An abundance of research has documented the negative effects of stress and instability within families and on child development in particular. There is relative lack of data, however, on factors that may protect children against the effects of such an unprecedented set of stressors. The current study will evaluate risk and resilience factors that influence how families respond to the stress, and identify family characteristics and parenting behaviors that promote children’s well-being, focusing on those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds who are most impacted by these unprecedented threats to health and social stability. Prospective studies investigating the effects of a pandemic on psychological and physiological functioning in U.S. families have the potential to greatly contribute to our understanding of how children and adults cope with stress. The current study will capitalize on an ongoing longitudinal study of stress and adaptation in families with young children. The research will address fundamental questions about the effects of a chronic stressor on psychological adjustment, as well as the biological mechanisms by which stress affects health. Importantly, by examining patterns of socialization and variation in parenting, results of the study will highlight parental behaviors that may be protective. Utilizing a multi-method approach, the study incorporates questionnaire, and observational and physiological assessments, during the early period of the pandemic and approximately six months later. Comparing these data to those collected prior to the pandemic onset will allow modeling of trajectories, and the possibility of testing mediating and moderating mechanisms. The study will examine not only longitudinal change and individual variability in stress physiology and well-being, but also stress proliferation within families and the extent to which self-regulatory competencies and positive parenting including emotion socialization buffer against negative outcomes in children.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.