Child internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic among maltreating and non-maltreating families: Examining the effects of family resources and the Reminiscing and Emotion Training intervention.

Background: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on child functioning have been especially pronounced among low-income families. Protective factors, including sensitive reminiscing and sufficient family resources, may reduce the negative effects of the pandemic on child adjustment.
Objective: The current study investigated how family resources during the pandemic, race, maltreatment, and pre-pandemic involvement in an emotion socialization intervention (M _{years ago}  = 4.37, SD = 1.36) were associated with child internalizing symptoms during the pandemic.
Participants and Setting: The study utilized longitudinal data following 137 maltreating and low-income nonmaltreating mother-child dyads (M _age  = 9.08, SD = 1.88; 54.7% Male).
Methods: Mother-child dyads engaged in a randomized controlled trial of the Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET; Valentino et al., 2019) intervention prior to the pandemic. Dyads discussed shared, past emotional experiences, and during the pandemic, mothers reported on their family resources and their child's internalizing symptoms. A path analysis examined the effects of family resources, race, maltreatment, and the RET intervention on child internalizing symptoms.
Results: Family resources during the pandemic were significantly and inversely associated with child internalizing symptoms, b = -0.07, SE = 0.02, p < .01. There was a significant indirect effect of RET on child internalizing symptoms through sensitive reminiscing and a prior assessment of child maladjustment (95% CI [-0.294, -0.001]).
Conclusions: These findings suggest adequate family resources and sensitive maternal emotion socialization may be protective against child internalizing symptoms during the pandemic.
(Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)