Study Protocol for the COVID-19 Pandemic Adjustment Survey (CPAS): A Longitudinal Study of Australian Parents of a Child 0–18 Years

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic presents significant risks to the mental health and wellbeing of Australian families. Employment and economic uncertainty, chronic stress, anxiety, and social isolation are likely to have negative impacts on parent mental health, couple and family relationships, as well as child health and development. Objective: This study aims to: (1) provide timely information on the mental health impacts of the emerging COVID-19 crisis in a close to representative sample of Australian parents and children (0–18 years), (2) identify adults and families most at risk of poor mental health outcomes, and (3) identify factors to target through clinical and public health intervention to reduce risk. Specifically, this study will investigate the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with increased risk for parents’ mental health, lower well-being, loneliness, and alcohol use; parent-parent and parent-child relationships (both verbal and physical); and child and adolescent mental health problems. Methods: The study aims to recruit a close to representative sample of at least 2,000 adults aged 18 years and over living in Australia who are parents of a child 0–4 years (early childhood, N = 400), 5–12 years (primary school N = 800), and 13–18 years (secondary school, N = 800). The design will be a longitudinal cohort study using an online recruitment methodology. Participants will be invited to complete an online baseline self-report survey (20 min) followed by a series of shorter online surveys (10 min) scheduled every 2 weeks for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., estimated to be 14 surveys over 6 months). Results: The study will employ post stratification weights to address differences between the final sample and the national population in geographic communities across Australia. Associations will be analyzed using multilevel modeling with time-variant and time-invariant predictors of change in trajectory over the testing period. Conclusions: This study will provide timely information on the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on parents and children in Australia; identify communities, parents, families, and children most at risk of poor outcomes; and identify potential factors to address in clinical and public health interventions to reduce risk.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.555750
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences
Additional Information: © 2020 Westrupp, Karantzas, Macdonald, Olive, Youssef, Greenwood, Sciberras, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Evans, Mikocka-Walus, Ling, Cummins, Hutchinson, Melvin, Fernando, Teague, Wood, Toumbourou, Berkowitz, Linardon, Enticott, Stokes, McGillivray and Olsson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Uncontrolled Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic,child mental health,couple conflict,family functioning,father,mental health,mother,parenting,Psychiatry and Mental health
Publication ISSN: 1664-0640
Last Modified: 26 Mar 2024 08:15
Date Deposited: 15 Sep 2020 08:11
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://www.fro ... 020.555750/full (Publisher URL)
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2020-08-31
Accepted Date: 2020-08-17
Submitted Date: 2020-04-26
Authors: Westrupp, Elizabeth M.
Karantzas, Gery
Macdonald, Jacqui A.
Olive, Lisa
Youssef, George
Greenwood, Christopher J.
Sciberras, Emma
Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Matthew
Evans, Subhadra
Mikocka-Walus, Antonina
Ling, Mathew
Cummins, Robert
Hutchinson, Delyse
Melvin, Glenn
Fernando, Julian W.
Teague, Samantha
Wood, Amanda G. (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-1537-6858)
Toumbourou, John W.
Berkowitz, Tomer
Linardon, Jake
Enticott, Peter G.
Stokes, Mark A.
McGillivray, Jane
Olsson, Craig A.

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