The family stress model in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: Family cohesion as a source of resilience among Latinx families.

Abstract

Studies emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic have documented the emotional, physical, and economic hardships experienced within families across the United States. Guided by the family stress model, this study examined parents' reports of economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the role of this hardship in Latinx parents' concurrent depressive symptoms and parenting behaviors and, in turn, their youths' well-being 1 year later. Further, we examined whether family cohesion mitigated the negative impact of families' economic strain. The present study utilized data from a longitudinal study of 295 Latinx families living within the U.S. Southwest. Parents and their adolescents were recruited in August 2020 and completed online surveys at two time points (about a year apart). Adolescents were approximately 13 years old (SD = 1.41 years) at Time 1 (T1), and the majority were U.S.-born (95%). Adolescents identified as male (51%), female (47%), and trans female/nonbinary (2%). Parents were 40 years old (SD = 6.27 years) at T1, and the majority were U.S.-born (58.2%) and identified as female (90%). Results indicated that families who experienced more economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic also reported greater depressive symptoms, which, in turn, were associated with lower parental warmth. Parental warmth predicted lower adolescent depressive symptoms 1 year later, accounting for prior levels of youth symptoms. Overall, findings supported the indirect associations between greater economic hardship and youth's lower well-being, but also suggested that greater family cohesion moderated links such that it offset the negative association between parent's depressive symptoms and parenting practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).