Date
1-16-2025
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)
Chair
Mollie Boyd
Keywords
Mental Health, COVID-19, Pandemic
Disciplines
Counseling
Recommended Citation
Gray, Whitney S., "Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of Children and Parents During the Pandemic" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 6425.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/6425
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic presented parents with stressors that affected their well-being and their life satisfaction. The pandemic caused parents to struggle with balancing their families’ needs and maintaining their happiness. Prior to the pandemic, children and adolescents had a routine that accommodated their daily functioning and provided them with social contact. The pandemic added stress with parents working odd hours at work, having to adjust to their child’s school schedules, and not being able to contribute to their support system. In addition to these daily stressors, parents had to consider the precautions surrounding COVID-19 and the worries attached to the vaccination for this infectious disease. The sense of coherence stands in the middle of stress and life satisfaction. Parents were essentially faced with difficulties that created further challenges for them during the pandemic, as well as for their children. This stress also led to poor mental health influences for both the parent and the child. The phenomenology aims to accurately depict the parent’s experiences living with their children during the pandemic, emphasizing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and identifying the adaptive strategies used to persist during this time.
