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The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted parents, though few studies have explored how parents are using online parenting forums to discuss stressors and obtain information and social support during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to elucidate what stressors parents are discussing and seeking information and social support regarding through online Canadian parenting forums during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 337 threads focusing on parenting questions and discussions on two popular online forums, BabyCentre Canada and Canadian Parents What to Expect, were analyzed using a qualitative framework analytic approach. Our emergent framework identified three main themes of parental stressors discussed by parents on the forums during COVID-19 (household stressors, child health, parental health), each with associated subthemes. The findings suggest that skills-based online interventions, such as programs grounded in dialectical behavioral therapy that focus on stress management, self-compassion, and supporting child development while managing multiple roles, may be particularly helpful in mitigating stress among this parent population. Further, our findings inform how mental health organizations working with parents could integrate online forums into their pre-existing websites as a means of providing credible information and peer support regarding the themes of stressors identified through our analysis. Future research should evaluate parents' use of other virtual modalities for seeking health information, parenting advice, or social connection online to ensure that parents have access to credible information through their preferred mediums. Highlights: Parents use online forums to seek and give advice and support or reassurance regarding stressors during COVID-19. Parents identified co-parenting relationships and social health as key stressors during the pandemic. Parents used forums to gather information regarding their child's health and development during the pandemic. Online modalities have room to be leveraged to offer social connection and co-parenting support to parents. Skills-based online interventions for supporting child development while managing multiple roles, may mitigate parental stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated factors associated with parent awareness and socialization surrounding COVID-19-related racial disparities among White parents of children ages 1.5–8 living in Canada and the United States (N = 423, 88% mothers). Participants responded to an online survey about parenting during the pandemic between mid to late-April 2020. Participants reported on their level of awareness of COVID-19-related racial disparities as well as how often they discussed these with their children. Although 52% reported some level of awareness, only 34% reported any amount of discussion with their child about it. Regression models were used to further examine stress-related, socioeconomic, parenting, and news-watching associations with awareness and socialization. This study provides unique insight into which White parents are aware of racial inequities exposed by the pandemic and which are choosing to speak to their children about them. Current summary recommendations for White racial socialization and related research are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Parent–child interactions are crucial for child development. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected mental health and increased parenting challenges impacting parent–child functioning. Objective: This study examined parent factors related to more and less enriching child activities during the pandemic through Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems framework. Methods: A convenience sample of parents (N = 708), primarily mothers (n = 610; 87.4%) aged 35.59 years old (SD = 5.59; range = 21–72), with children ages 2–8 years completed an online questionnaire between April 14-June 1, 2020. Participants mostly resided in Canada, had an income of > $100,000, and identified as White (82.4%). Parent–child activities were measured as total weekly time and combined time across activities within two categories: hands-on play and screen time. Bivariate correlations informed blockwise linear regression models. Results: For families with childcare needs, parental anxiety was associated with higher total hands-on play, combined hands-on play, and combined screen time. Families without childcare needs indicated parenting stress was associated with lower total hands-on play and combined hands-on play, and higher supervised screen time. Family structure and indices of socioeconomic status were also predictive of activities across childcare needs and child ages. Conclusions: To promote high-quality parent–child interactions and positive developmental outcomes during the pandemic, childcare needs and parent wellbeing should be supported, while evidence-based guidelines for child screen time should be further researched in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parent stress and mental health problems negatively impact early child development. This study aimed to systematically review and meta-analyze the effect of eHealth interventions on parent stress and mental health outcomes, and identify family- and program-level factors that may moderate treatment effects. A search of PsycINFO, Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane and Embase databases was conducted from their inception dates to July 2020. English-language controlled and open trials were included if they reported: (a) administration of an eHealth intervention, and (b) stress or mental health outcomes such as self-report or clinical diagnosis of anxiety and depression, among (c) parents of children who were aged 1–5 years old. Non-human studies, case reports, reviews, editorials, letters, dissertations, and books were excluded. Risk of bias was assessed using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Study Quality Assessment Tools. Random-effects meta-analyses of standardized mean differences (SMD) were conducted and meta-regressions tested potential moderators. 38 studies were included (N = 4360 parents), from 13 countries (47.4% USA). Meta-analyses indicated eHealth interventions were associated with better self-reported mental health among parents (overall SMD =.368, 95% CI 0.228, 0.509), regardless of study design (k = 30 controlled, k = 8 pre-post) and across most outcomes (k = 17 anxiety, k = 19 depression, k = 12 parenting stress), with small to medium effect sizes. No significant family- or program-level moderators emerged. Despite different types and targets, eHealth interventions offer a promising and accessible option to promote mental health among parents of young children. Further research is needed on moderators and the long-term outcomes of eHealth interventions. Prospero Registration: CRD42020190719. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent meta-analytic review by Shields, Sazma, & Yonelinas (2016) brings to the fore several conceptual issues within the stress and executive function (EF) literatures. We present a critique of these issues, using the review as an exemplar of how stress and EF are often examined empirically. The review summarizes research suggesting that EF is not only trait-like, but can be also state-like, influenced by factors such as acute stress. It has numerous strengths including its scope in examining EF across domains, inclusion of moderators, and timeliness, given the rapidly expanding field of stress research. We argue that the conclusions would be less equivocal with a more precise and neurally-informed consideration of EF, stressor, and timing assessments. A detailed discussion of these issues is provided, using the inhibition EF domain as an example, in order to illustrate key limitations and potential consequences of broad inclusion criteria. We endeavor to promote precise, shared definitions in the service of delineating a more complete and consistent account of acute stress effects on EF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neurovisceral integration model stipulates that autonomic function plays a critical role in the regulation of higher-order cognitive processes, yet most work to date has examined parasympathetic function in isolation from sympathetic function. Furthermore, the majority of work has been conducted on normative samples, which typically demonstrate parasympathetic withdrawal to increase arousal needed to complete cognitive tasks. Little is known about how autonomic regulation supports cognitive function in populations exposed to high levels of stress, which is critical given that chronic stress exposure alters autonomic function. To address this, we sought to characterize how parasympathetic (high-frequency heart rate variability, HF-HRV) and sympathetic (preejection period, PEP) measures of cardiac function contribute to individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity in a sample of high-risk women. HF-HRV and PEP were measured at rest and during a visual change detection measure of WM. Multilevel modeling was used to examine within-person fluctuations in WM performance throughout the task concurrently with HF-HRV and PEP, as well as between-person differences as a function of resting HF-HRV and PEP levels. Results indicate that resting PEP moderated the association between HF-HRV reactivity and WM capacity. Increases in WM capacity across the task were associated with increases in parasympathetic activity, but only among individuals with longer resting PEP (lower sympathetic arousal). Follow-up analyses showed that shorter resting PEP was associated with greater cumulative risk exposure. These results support the autonomic space framework, in that the relationship between behavior and parasympathetic function appears dependent on resting sympathetic activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying environmental influences on inhibitory control (IC) may help promote positive behavioral and social adjustment. Although chronic stress is known to predict lower IC, the immediate effects of acute stress are unknown. The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) may be a mechanism of the stress-IC link, given its psychophysiological regulatory role and connections to prefrontal brain regions critical to IC. We used a focused assessment of IC (the stop-signal task) to test whether an acute social stressor (the Trier Social Stress Test) affected participants’ pre- to post-IC performance (n = 58), compared to a control manipulation (n = 31). High frequency heart-rate variability was used as an index of PNS activity in response to the manipulation. Results indicated that stress impaired IC performance, blocking the practice effects observed in control participants. We also investigated the associations between PNS activity and IC; higher resting PNS activity predicted better pre-manipulation IC, and greater PNS stressor reactivity protected against the negative effects of stress on IC. Together, these results are the first to document the immediate effects of acute stress on IC and a phenotypic marker (PNS reactivity to stressors) of susceptibility to stress-induced IC impairment. This study suggests a new way to identify situations in which individuals are likely to exhibit IC vulnerability and related consequences such as impulsivity and risk taking behavior. Targeting PNS regulation may represent a novel target for IC-focused interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The validation of laboratory paradigms that reliably induce a stress response [including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic nervous system (ANS) activation], is critical for understanding how children’s stress-response systems support emotional and cognitive function. Early childhood research to date is markedly limited, given the difficulty in establishing paradigms that reliably induce a cortisol response. Furthermore, research to date has not included a control condition or examined concurrent ANS reactivity. We addressed these limitations by characterizing the extent to which a modified matching task stressor paradigm induces HPA and ANS activation, beyond a closely matched control condition. Modifications include an unfamiliar and unfriendly assessor to increase the stressful nature of the task. Results validate the matching task as a laboratory stressor, with significant differences in HPA and ANS responsivity between conditions. The Stressor group exhibited a cortisol increase post-stressor, while the Control group was stable over time. Children in both conditions exhibited reduced parasympathetic activity to the first-half of the task, but in the second-half, only children in the Stressor condition, who were experiencing exaggerated signals of failure, exhibited further parasympathetic decline. The Stressor condition induced higher sympathetic activity (versus Control) throughout the task, with exaggerated second-half differences. Within the Stressor condition, responsivity was convergent across systems, with greater cortisol reactivity correlated with the magnitude of parasympathetic withdrawal and sympathetic engagement. Future research employing the matching task will facilitate understanding the role of HPA and ANS function in development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]