Parenting stress among new parents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced parents to deal with a challenging crisis, which may have increased their stress levels, negatively affecting their parenting and putting their infants at risk of abuse.

To examine the contribution of the pandemic to parenting stress, exploring differences in parenting stress among new parents before and during the crisis, the role of background and personal variables, and the possibility that the study phase moderated the associations of gender and personal resources with parenting stress.

Israeli parents (n = 1591) whose first child was 3-12 months old were recruited twice through social media: in 2019, before the spread of COVID-19 (n = 985); and in March 2020, during the pandemic (n = 606).

Sociodemographic variables, perception of the childbirth as traumatic, lower meaning in life, higher search for meaning, less marital satisfaction, and study phase all contributed to greater parenting stress. In addition, the association between gender and stress was moderated by study phase, with fathers reporting a greater increase in stress during the pandemic. Moreover, only during the pandemic did fathers report higher parenting stress than mothers.

The findings highlight the vulnerability of new parents of young infants to parenting stress during the crisis, and the special attention which should be paid to fathers. They indicate the value of strengthening meaning in life and preserving good marital relationships as resources that help to cope with the heightened parenting stress at this time.