Changes in Alcohol Use and Harsh Parenting during COVID-19

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PROJECT SUMMARY The role of alcohol use in the etiology of abusive parenting is a significant known risk. The COVID-19 pandemic is a health, economic, and social crisis that has radically changed supports available for parenting, particularly as many parents may have lost jobs or had to navigate working from home while monitoring their child(ren)’s virtual and/or hybrid schooling. Further, COVID-19-related distress is associated with drinking- related coping, which in turn is related to increased frequency and quantity of alcohol use. While the full impact may not be known for years, it is likely that increased parent-child time within the home may mean an increase in child abuse and neglect that is hidden from mandated reporters who are an important front-line defense in keeping children safe (e.g., teachers, childcare providers). In our innovative study, we asked mothers directly about their use of aggressive and punitive parenting practices (which correlate with use of child abuse neglect) three times a day for 14 days mid-March through April 2020, during Ohio’s stay-at home orders and again during February 2021, before vaccinations were widely available and when most schools were in hybrid or fully virtual formats. Thus, our understanding of changes in parenting do not rely on official reports of child abuse and neglect during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed study capitalizes on two existing waves of data collection by adding a third wave of data of mothers in Central Ohio that assesses alcohol use and parenting behaviors to occur 6–12 months after most social distancing and other COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted. This represents a unique opportunity to assess how alcohol use has changed and affected use of aggressive and punitive discipline during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, our study combines use of a baseline survey and Ecological Momentary Assessment for all three time periods to assess past year and at- the-moment stress, drinking, and parenting behaviors. This provides us with important information on behaviors pre-pandemic while also being able to assess micro-temporal changes in daily alcohol use and parenting during and after social distancing and other pandemic restrictions have been lifted. The specific aims of the study are: Aim 1: Examine change in drinking behaviors during three time points of the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) during Ohio’s first stay-at-home orders; (2) about one year into the pandemic; and (3) 6–12 months after re- opening occurred; Aim 2: Test whether daily drinking during and post-pandemic were related to at-the-moment aggressive and punitive parenting; and Aim 3: Investigate if daily drinking moderates the relationship between at-the-moment stress and aggressive and punitive parenting during the pandemic and if that changes when re-opening has occurred.