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Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors

The psychosocial adaptation of children born or experiencing their early years during the COVID-19 pandemic remains uncertain. In order to implement prevention strategies, it is, therefore, a priority to deeply analyze children’s mental health in this post-pandemic phase and to identify family risk...

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Autores principales: Prino, Laura Elvira, Arace, Angelica, Zonca, Paola, Agostini, Protima, Scarzello, Donatella
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10647701/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37958006
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11212862
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author Prino, Laura Elvira
Arace, Angelica
Zonca, Paola
Agostini, Protima
Scarzello, Donatella
author_facet Prino, Laura Elvira
Arace, Angelica
Zonca, Paola
Agostini, Protima
Scarzello, Donatella
author_sort Prino, Laura Elvira
collection PubMed
description The psychosocial adaptation of children born or experiencing their early years during the COVID-19 pandemic remains uncertain. In order to implement prevention strategies, it is, therefore, a priority to deeply analyze children’s mental health in this post-pandemic phase and to identify family risk and protective factors. Indeed, recent studies reveal that children’s emotional distress increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in situations of high parental stress. The study investigates associations between some parental characteristics (coping strategies, parental burnout, resilience, perception of social support, and promotion of children’s social-emotional competence) and children’s emotional symptoms, considering gender differences. A total of 358 parents of children aged 2 to 6 years participated in this study. Regression analyses show that parental burnout is a predictor of emotional symptoms; moreover, for females, higher levels of emotional symptoms are associated with parental maladaptive coping strategies, whereas for males, the parent’s ability to promote children’s emotional competence is a protective factor. Results emphasize the importance of supporting parental well-being as a critical factor in shielding children from the repercussions of adverse situations.
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spelling pubmed-106477012023-10-30 Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors Prino, Laura Elvira Arace, Angelica Zonca, Paola Agostini, Protima Scarzello, Donatella Healthcare (Basel) Article The psychosocial adaptation of children born or experiencing their early years during the COVID-19 pandemic remains uncertain. In order to implement prevention strategies, it is, therefore, a priority to deeply analyze children’s mental health in this post-pandemic phase and to identify family risk and protective factors. Indeed, recent studies reveal that children’s emotional distress increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in situations of high parental stress. The study investigates associations between some parental characteristics (coping strategies, parental burnout, resilience, perception of social support, and promotion of children’s social-emotional competence) and children’s emotional symptoms, considering gender differences. A total of 358 parents of children aged 2 to 6 years participated in this study. Regression analyses show that parental burnout is a predictor of emotional symptoms; moreover, for females, higher levels of emotional symptoms are associated with parental maladaptive coping strategies, whereas for males, the parent’s ability to promote children’s emotional competence is a protective factor. Results emphasize the importance of supporting parental well-being as a critical factor in shielding children from the repercussions of adverse situations. MDPI 2023-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10647701/ /pubmed/37958006 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11212862 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Prino, Laura Elvira
Arace, Angelica
Zonca, Paola
Agostini, Protima
Scarzello, Donatella
Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors
title Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors
title_full Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors
title_fullStr Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors
title_full_unstemmed Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors
title_short Preschool Emotional Problems in the Post-Pandemic Era between Parental Risk and Protective Factors
title_sort preschool emotional problems in the post-pandemic era between parental risk and protective factors
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10647701/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37958006
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11212862
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