Family communication and child behavior problems during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges for many families, with wide-ranging implications for children's mental health. While much prior research has emphasized the developmental harms associated with the pandemic, this study examines how family communication may serve as a protective factor, buffering the impact of COVID-19-related stress on children's internalizing and externalizing problems. Participants included 144 predominantly Black, low-income, and economically marginalized mother-child dyads who were originally enrolled in a longitudinal study of stress and coping (2015-2019). During the pandemic, 76 mothers completed virtual follow-up surveys between October 2020 and April 2021. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted using Mplus (Muthén & Muthén, 2017). Results indicated that higher levels of family communication were significantly associated with fewer child externalizing behaviors. Consistent with study hypotheses, COVID-19-related stress interacted with family communication to yield a significant moderating effect on children's externalizing behaviors. No significant main or interactive effects were found between family communication and child internalizing problems. The study sample was small, and thus generalizability must be carefully considered. This study supports the future exploration of family communication processes as buffering against other potentially traumatic experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).