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

对于有年幼子女的家庭来说，新冠肺炎疫情构成了一个主要的生活压力源，伴随着日常需求的增加，包括缺乏育儿、工作预期改变、工作不安全感和社会疏远。所有这些都因对疾病对家庭成员健康的直接和间接影响的迫切关切而变得更加复杂。大量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负面影响。然而，关于保护儿童免受这种史无前例的压力源影响的因素，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父母行为，重点关注那些来自社会经济不利背景的人，他们受到这些对健康和社会稳定的前所未有的威胁的影响最大。调查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年人如何应对压力。目前的研究将利用正在进行的关于有年幼子女的家庭的压力和适应的纵向研究。这项研究将解决有关慢性应激源对心理调整的影响以及压力影响健康的生物学机制的基本问题。重要的是，通过考察社会化和父母教养方式的变化，研究结果将突出父母可能具有保护性的行为。利用多方法方法，这项研究纳入了在大流行初期和大约六个月后的问卷调查以及观察和生理评估。将这些数据与大流行爆发前收集的数据进行比较，将能够对轨迹进行建模，并有可能测试调解和缓和机制。这项研究不仅将考察压力生理和幸福感的纵向变化和个体差异，还将研究家庭内的压力扩散，以及自我调节能力和积极的父母教育(包括情绪社会化)在多大程度上缓冲儿童的负面后果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.