Family resilience before and during the COVID-19 epidemic: A latent transition analysis

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic presented vast challenges to families. However, some families could successfully withstand the adversity. To understand how these families adapted to this challenge and whether the profile of family resilience changed, this study investigated the transitions in patterns of family resilience before and during COVID-19, and examined potential predictors for the profile and transition of resilience, such as gender, grade level and social support. A total of 304 children in fourth and fifth grade completed the questionnaire at three time points (T1: June 2019; T2: February 2020, T3: March 2020). Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) and Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) were used to identify meaningful subgroups and transitions between groups across time. Results revealed (1) LPA identified three resilience profiles at all three times, characterized by high levels of family resilience (HFR), average levels of family resilience (AFR), and low levels of family resilience (LFR). (2) LTA showed that children in HFR group were most likely to remain in the same group. The largest probability of transition was from LFR group to AFR group. (3) Higher graders were more likely to be part of LFR group. Social support had significant effects on both subgroup classification and transition probability. Gender didn’t present a significant predictive role at any time. Given that this study demonstrated the heterogeneity in family resilience patterns and the instability of LFR group, it is suggested to identify and implement specific interventions to help families with low levels of resilience to adapt better.