PARENTAL STRESS AMONG PARENTS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Many parents have high level of Parental stress during the lockdown period. Parents had to manage their children at home from school 24 h a day and, at the same time, most of them had to start smart-working from home, still carrying out their children’s school commitments. Many parents also had to manage difficulties and pain related to having sick or dead relatives, having had wages reductions, or in some cases, having lost their work. Parental stress, defined as parental perceptions of an imbalance between the demands of parenting and available resources (Raphael, Zhang, Liu, & Giardino, 2010). Parenting stress is a normal part of the parenting experience. It arises when parenting demands exceed the expected and actual resources available to the parents that permit them to succeed in the parent role. The present study was aimed to investigate the level of Parental Stress among parents across their gender during covid-19 pandemic. METHOD: The study was done on 100 parents out of 50 males and 50 females were selected through purposive sampling technique. Parental Stress Scale (Berry and Jones, 1995) was used to collect data. Data were analyzed by using mean, standard deviation and independent sample ttest. RESULT: Result of study proved that there is no significant difference in the level of Parental Stress among parents across their gender during covid-19 pandemic. Fathers have high level of Parental stress when compared to mothers Key terms : Parental stress INTRODUCTION During the lockdown period many parents have high level of Parental Stress. This study helps to understand the significant difference in the level of Parental stress among parents across their gender during covid-19 pandemic. Parental stress is the distress you experience when you feel you just can't cope as a parent. The demands being placed on you are too high. You don't have the resources to meet them (Deater-Deckard 1998; Holly et al 2019). All parents experience parenting stress to some extent regardless of their educational levels and the income and social support available to them. The sources of parenting stress include major life events, such as child illness, marital decomposition, and parental unemployment, as well as the cumulative daily hassles of childrearing. Although COVID-19 is not the only global public www.ijcrt. org © 2021 IJCRT | Volume 9, Issue 1 January 2021 | ISSN: 2320-2882 IJCRT2101150 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt. org 1202 health challenge to threaten society, it will likely have long-term negative impacts on today’s children and families. Stress is associated with lower emotional well-being in parents. That is, parents who report more daily hassles in parenting and/or more major life events describe themselves as having less life satisfaction and more negative mood and emotional distress . There is some evidence that stress from daily hassles relates more strongly than does stress from major life events, but stress from each of these sources contributes to lower emotional well-being. In addition to the negative impact on their own emotional wellbeing, parents with high stress also report a less positive outlook on parenting and less satisfaction in the parental role. Furthermore, they tend to experience less pleasure in and enjoyment of their children. Not surprisingly, they report lower feelings of self-efficacy in the parenting role; that is, they feel less competent in carrying out their parental responsibilities and less confident that their efforts will have a positive impact on their children. Definition of key terms Parental Stress is the experience of distress or discomfort that results from demands associated with the role of parenting (Deater-Deckard,1998) Review of literature: J. Jay Miller, Morgan E. Cooley, Brittany P. Mihalec‐Adkins(2020) conducted a study on Examining the Impact of COVID‐19 on Parental Stress: A Study of Foster Parents. The focus was to understand how foster parents’ parenting-related stress levels have changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the role of socio demographic characteristics in Exacerbating risk for increased stress. Participants were electronically surveyed about their preand post-pandemic parenting-related stress, using an adapted version of the parenting stress scale. Nine-hundred and ninety foster parents (N=990) participated in the study. Mona, M. Barakat, Rehab, E. Mohamed(2019) conducted a study on Relationship between Parent Stress, Psychological Well-Being and Coping Strategies among Parents with Down Syndrome children. The focus was to assess the levels of parents stress, psychological well-being, and coping Strategies among parents with Down syndrome children, and investigate the relationship between parents Stress, psychological well-being, and coping strategies among parents with Down syndrome children. A descriptive correlational design was utilized to fulfill the aim of this study. Setting: The study was conducted at genetic outpatient in specific children hospital in Benha City, Kaluobia Governorate, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Health. Sample: Purposive sampling of 50 parents with Down syndrome children was recruited. Susan a. Esdaile, kenneth mark greenwood conducted study to explore the comparison of mothers’ and Fathers’ experience of parenting Stress and attributions for Parent–child interaction outcomes. Parenting Attribution Test (Bugental et al., 1989; Bugental and Shennum, 1984), Abidin’s (1990) Parenting Stress Index (PSI) and modified version of the CIS (the M-CIS; Esdaile and Greenwood, 1995b) was used asses the study of 78 parents (n = 53 mothers; n = 25 fathers). Comparisons were made between data from mothers and fathers in this study as well as with previously collected data on 202 mothers (Esdaile and Greenwood, 1995a; 1995b) and 23fathers of children who were not disabled. Each variable was subjected to a separate two factor completely randomized design ANOVA comparing the responses of mothers and fathers and parents of disabled and non-disabled children. www.ijcrt. org © 2021 IJCRT | Volume 9, Issue 1 January 2021 | ISSN: 2320-2882 IJCRT2101150 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt. org 1203 Rationale After reviewing of literature researcher found that there is no research related with Parental stress among parents across their gender during covid-19 pandemic so that researcher is trying to research on this topic. Researcher is hopeful of finding this valuable information so as to enable researcher and others to know some information about Parental stress among parents.