The Intergenerational Transmission of Maladaptive Parenting and its Impact on Child Mental Health: Examining Cross-Cultural Mediating Pathways and Moderating Protective Factors

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Culture can influence emotional and behavioural responses to the pandemic and its consequences, but research is primarily focused on single culture experiences. The study examined the impact of caregiver emotional responses to the pandemic and the lockdown on child mental health and wellbeing in two culturally different countries that were severely affected by the pandemic: UK and Turkey Method: Participants were 1849 caregivers of children between 5- and 12-years old living in the UK (n= 995) and Turkey (n = 854), who completed a 20 -min electronic survey on child and family wellbeing distributed via social networks during the initial phase of the COVID-19 lockdown (July and August 2020). Findings: Worry of COVID-19 infection was higher amongst caregivers in the Turkish sample and it independently predicted change in children’s internalising behaviour in the Turkish sample only even after controlling for caregiver and child mental health, and caregiver perceived risk of COVID-19 infection. Caregivers in the UK sample reported more difficulty with family coexistence during the stay-at-home orders. However, difficulty with coexistence independently predicted change in children’s externalising and internalising symptoms before and during the lockdown in both samples. The study revealed cross-cultural differences in the predictors of change in children’s internalising and externalising behaviour before and during the initial national COVID-19 lockdown.

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A Cross-Cultural Study in Germany, Russia, and China: Are Resilient and Social Supported Students Protected Against Depression, Anxiety, and Stress?

Psychological Reports ◽

10.1177/0033294117727745 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 121 (2) ◽

pp. 265-281 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Julia Brailovskaia ◽

Pia Schönfeld ◽

Xiao Chi Zhang ◽

Angela Bieda ◽

Yakov Kochetkov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Support ◽

Protective Factors ◽

Cultural Study ◽

Chinese Students ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Negatively Associated ◽

Stress Symptoms ◽

Cross Cultural Study

This study cross-culturally investigated resilience and social support as possible protective factors for mental health. The values of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, resilience and social support were collected from German (N = 4433), Russian (N = 3774), and Chinese students (N = 4982). The samples were split (two-thirds vs. one-third) to cross-validate the results. In all samples, resilience and social support were significantly negatively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. While in Germany those associations were stronger for social support, in Russia and in China stronger associations were found for resilience. Furthermore, in all samples, resilience was found to mediate the association between social support and the negative mental health variables significantly. In conclusion, resilience and social support are universal interrelated protective factors for mental health independently of historical, cultural, social, and geographical conditions of a country.

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