A US National Study of Family Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the lives of children and their caregivers. Recent research has examined the impact of the pandemic on child and caregiver functioning but there is a paucity of work examining the impact of the pandemic on the broader family system. The current study examined family resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic across three aims: Aim 1 tested whether meaning, control, and emotion systems form a unitary family adaption factor, Aim 2 evaluated a concurrent model of family resilience, and Aim 3 examined whether parent gender and vaccination status moderated paths in the final model. A nationally representative sample of U.S. parents (N = 796; 51.8% fathers, M age = 38.87 years, 60.3% Non-Hispanic White) completed a cross-sectional survey about themselves and one child (5-16 years old) between February-April 2021, including measures of COVID-19 family risk and protective factors, pre-existing family health vulnerabilities, race, COVID-19 stressors, and family adaptation. Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated that the meaning (i.e., family making meaning of COVID-19), control (i.e., stability in routines), and emotional (i.e., family support) facets of family adaptation are unique but related. A path model revealed that there were concurrent effects from COVID-19 exposure, pre-existing vulnerabilities, and racial diversity status to the family protective, vulnerability, and adaptation variables. Additionally, parent COVID-19 vaccination status altered the association between pre-existing family health vulnerabilities and the family protective factor. Overall, results underscore the importance of examining pre-existing and concurrent risk and protective factors for family resilience during a stressful, global, and far-reaching event.