COVID-19 Parent Stress in Middle Eastern and North African Countries: Relations to Family Adjustment

The COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful for individuals worldwide, including parents. Most research investigating stress during the pandemic has focused on single stressors in relation to outcomes and has been conducted in Western countries. Among parents from Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries, the present study used latent class analysis to identify specific subgroups of individuals based on combinations of stressful events experienced during the first two waves of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Whether individuals in these classes differed on levels of both adaptive (individual resilience, family cohesion) and maladaptive outcomes (depressive symptoms) was tested. Finally, perceived marital satisfaction was tested as a moderator of relations between class membership and adjustment outcomes. Participants were 545 parents (66.8% women, M-age = 35.79 years) recruited online who indicated presence or absence of experiencing 21 stressors across domains such as a family member contracting COVID, increased caregiving burden, work-related stress, and child adjustment problems. Three latent classes were identified, with one group characterized by work and child adjustment stress, one by child adjustment stress only, and one by low levels of stress across domains. The two higher stress groups reported increased depression. No associations with positive outcomes were found. Martial quality was most important for impacting greater resilience for those individuals experiencing child adjustment stress. This study provides evidence that COVID-related stress had disproportionate impact across parents in MENA countries.