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Cited by 197COVID-19 and Mental HealthMindfulness and Compassion InterventionsChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Psychological flexibility and inflexibility as sources of resiliency and risk during a pandemic: Modeling the cascade of COVID-19 stress on family systems with a contextual behavioral science lens

Open access
Daks, Jennifer S., Peltz, Jack S., Rogge, Ronald D.·2020·Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science
DOI 10.1016/j.jcbs.2020.08.003PMC PMC7428754
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Abstract

Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the historic economic shutdown and stay-at-home efforts to slow its spread have radically impacted the lives of families across the world, completely disrupting routines and challenging them to adjust to new health risks as well as to new work and family demands. The current study applied a contextual behavioral science lens to the spillover hypothesis of Family Systems Theory to develop a multi-stage mechanistic model for how COVID-19 stress could impact family and child functioning and how parents' psychological flexibility could shape those processes.Methods A total of 742 coparents (71% female; 84% Caucasian, 85% married, M = 41 years old) of children (ages 5-18, M = 9.4 years old, 50% male) completed an online survey from March 27th to the end of April 2020.Results Path analyses highlighted robust links from parent inflexibility to all components of the model, predicting: greater COVID-19 stress, greater coparenting discord and family discord, greater caustic parenting, and greater parent and child distress. Parent flexibility was associated with greater family cohesion, lower family discord and greater use of constructive parenting strategies (inductive, democratic/autonomy supportive, positive). Results further suggested that COVID-19 stressors predicted greater family and coparent discord, which in turn predicted greater use of caustic parenting (reactive, inconsistent, aggressive), which in turn predicted greater child and parent distress.Conclusions The current results highlight parental flexibility and inflexibility as key points of intervention for helping families navigate the current global health crisis, highlighting the crucial role they play in the lives of families.

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  • During the pandemic, psychological flexibility moderated psychological distress within family systems.

    “During the pandemic PF has also been found to moderate the relationships between social isolation and depression and anxiety (Smith et al., 2020), COVID-19 risk factors and mental health difficulties (Pakenham et al., 2020), COVID-19 stressors and suicide risk (Crasta et al., 2020) and psychological distress within family systems (Daks et al., 2020).”

    From Behind the masks: A cross-sectional study on intolerance of uncertainty, perceived vulnerability to disease and psychological flexibility in relation to state anxiety and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as Daks et al., 2020

    The Results (Correlations among study variables; page unavailable) link parental psychological flexibility with parent depressive symptoms, while the Discussion (Implications; page unavailable) describes an indirect path from flexibility through lower family discord to lower child distress. The paper reports associations and path analyses, not a finding that flexibility moderated a relationship involving psychological distress. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • Psychological flexibility has a moderating role between the psychological impacts of COVID-19 and mental health outcomes and wellbeing.

    “and a moderating role between the psychological impacts of COVID-19 and mental health outcomes and wellbeing (Chong et al., 2021; Crasta et al., 2020; Daks et al., 2020; Pakenham et al., 2020; Smith et al., 2020).”

    From Behind the masks: A cross-sectional study on intolerance of uncertainty, perceived vulnerability to disease and psychological flexibility in relation to state anxiety and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as Daks et al., 2020

    The Results (Testing the path model; page unavailable) link parental psychological flexibility to healthier family functioning and indirectly to lower child distress during the pandemic. But the paper reports path associations, not that flexibility moderates the relationship between COVID-19’s psychological impacts and mental health or well-being outcomes. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Caregivers with symptoms of anxiety, depression, and traumatic stress are at higher risk of negative consequences due to COVID-19 and the quarantine.

    “As stated, caregivers with symptoms of anxiety, depression, and traumatic stress are at higher risk of negative consequences due to COVID-19 and the quarantine (Brooks et al., 2020, Brown et al., 2020, Daks et al., 2020).”

    From Brief Transdiagnostic Intervention for Parents With Emotional Disorder Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Example (2021) · cites this paper as Daks et al., 2020

    The Results (Testing the path model; page unavailable) link COVID-19 stress and stay-at-home demands to poorer family functioning and greater parent and child distress. The paper does not show that caregivers who already have anxiety, depression, or traumatic-stress symptoms are at higher risk of those consequences; its identified risk factor is parental psychological inflexibility. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Certain psychosocial studies point to psychological flexibility as a key target for treating and helping affected individuals recover.

    “Some of these identify psychological flexibility, or the ability to act with openness, awareness, and engagement (Hayes et al., 2006) as an important target in the treatment and recovery of those adversely affected”

    From Health, well-being, and persisting symptoms in the pandemic: What is the role of psychological flexibility? (2022) · cites this paper as Daks et al., 2020

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Hayes S.C. Strosahl K.D. Wilson K.G. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy:The process and practice of mindful change 2011 Guilford Press

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Authors
Daks, J. S., Peltz, J. S., & Rogge, R. D.
Affiliations
  • University of Rochester (US)
  • Daemen College (US)
Corresponding author
Daks, Jennifer S.
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-10
Volume
18
Pages
16-27
ISSN
2212-1447 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jcbs.2020.08.003
PMC
PMC7428754
OpenAlex
W3048447575
Cited by
197
References
77
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 44 · 2021: 47 · 2020: 7
FWCI
13.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
erratum (2021-07-01)
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
psychological flexibility, COVID-19 pandemic, family systems theory, spillover hypothesis, family conflict, family cohesion, child distress, parental distress, contextual behavioral science, family resilience

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