(PS3-D87) Examining Ethnic Differences in Family Coping Styles During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the lives of many families living in the United States. Since March 2020, many families have been affected by disruptions in day-to-day activities, including stay-at-home orders, remote learning for children, economic hardships, food and housing insecurity, social distancing and mask mandates, and illness (Trougakos et al., 2020). The stressors experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic vary by families but are most likely to affect persons of color from ethnic minority groups and are likely to be associated with poor mental health outcomes. Mixed evidence examining the effects of COVID-19 related stressors suggests that while some parents report an increase in the use of maladaptive coping styles, in contrast, others have reported coping mechanisms that have positively impacted their overall wellbeing during the pandemic (Pirutinsky et al., 2020; Park et al., 2020). However, few studies have examined the pandemic's disproportionate impact on ethnic minority families. In particular, there is a lack of research examining how African American parents and caregivers of school-aged children cope with the unprecedented increase in daily stressors.

The present research study, which just completed data collection, investigates the impact of stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic on family coping styles, and parents’ level of anxiety in a sample of 121 African American and 196 White parents of school aged children.  Participants were recruited from social media (i.e., Facebook groups, Instagram) and Amazon MTURK. Participants completed the Brief COPE (Carver 1997), a 28-item self-report measure to assess three overarching coping styles (i.e., problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, and avoidant coping). Additionally, participants completed 25 exposure items of the COVID-19 Exposure and Family Impact Scales (CEFIS, Kazak et al., 2021) to assess the level of impact of COVID-19 related events (e.g., family death, hospitalizations, school closures, and financial impact). Finally, participants completed the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), a brief 5-item screener assessing anxiety symptoms. Data will be analyzed using independent sample t-tests to examine ethnic group differences in coping mechanisms, as well as multiple regression analysis to evaluate predictors of anxiety symptoms by ethnic group.  We hypothesize that African American parents will use more emotion-focused coping mechanisms than parents from White backgrounds. In addition, experiencing a high number of COVID-related stressors will exacerbate COVID-related anxiety in African American parents even after controlling for socioeconomic factors.  The results of the study will inform knowledge about the coping mechanisms used by African American families during the COVID-19 pandemic and their relationship to parent mental health outcomes. These findings have implications for clinical practice with ethnic minority families.