How societal responses to COVID-19 could contribute to child neglect.

BACKGROUND: The ecosystemic approach to children's needs demands a cohesive response from societies, communities, and families. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the choices societies made to protect their community members from the virus could have created contexts of child neglect. With the closure of services and institutions, societies were no longer available to help meet the needs of children. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to examine parents' reports on the response their children received to their needs during the COVID-19 crisis. METHODS: During the period of the spring 2020 lockdown, 414 parents in the province of Quebec, Canada, completed an online questionnaire about the impact of the crisis on the response their children received to their needs. RESULTS: Compared to parents of younger children, parents of older children reported less fulfillment of their child's needs in three measured domains, namely cognitive and affective, security, and basic care needs. CONCLUSION: These results are discussed in light of the policies and the resources societies have put in place during the crisis to help families meet the needs of their children. Societies must learn from this crisis to put children at the top of their priorities in the face of a societal crisis. Thoughtful discussions and energy must be given to ensure that, while facing a crisis, the developmental trajectories of children are not sacrificed.

Childhood adversity, parental stress, and depression of negligent mothers.

The objective of this study was to identify major childhood events that were experienced by negligent mothers matched with non-negligent mothers as well as to define the existing link between those events, depression of the mother and parental stress. The sample was composed of 80 French-speaking Canadian families. The measures used were the Parental Stress Index (Abidin, 1983), the Psycho-Social Interview (Ethier et al., 1989) and the Beck Depression Inventory (1961). The results have shown an extreme level of parental stress and a high level a depression for negligent mothers. The negligent mothers had a history of placements, violence and sexual abuse, but they did not differ from control mothers for parental breakups and nonavailability. We have also shown a significant link between childhood events, depression, and parental stress even more so for the control group than for the negligence group. The results are discussed in the perspective of attachment theory.

Fear of contagion: a stress response to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

The threat of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has triggered an affective stress response to illness: fear of contagion, an anxious response to the perceived threat of catching a disease. Three behaviors characterize this fear: avoidance, extreme precautions, and verbal expressions of fear regarding the disease. Despite the scientific evidence for the low risk of occupational exposure to this infection, many health care workers appear to demonstrate highly fearful behavior. Social and cultural values, which attach a deep symbolic meaning to AIDS, combine with misperceptions about transmission to create this stress response. This article suggests education on cross-cultural, sexual, and death-related issues, as well as factural information on AIDS to decrease this fear. Implications for nursing research are included.

[Parental stress in mothers of preschool children: validation and Quebec norms for the Parental Stress Inventory]. / Le stress parental chez les mères d'enfants d'âge préscolaire: validation et normes québécoises pour l'Inventaire de Stress Parental.

The authors examine the metrological qualities of a French version of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1983; Loyd and Abidin, 1985) based on a sampling of 122 Québec mothers with a preschool child. Results show that the Parental Stress Inventory presents internal consistency indices that are equivalent to those obtained in the U.S. sampling. However, the samplings differ on seven out of 13 subscales, as well as concerning the scores obtained for the child's realm and the overall stress, Québec mothers show higher scores. The factorial analysis of the subscales supports the existence of a hierarchical structure composed of a general factor of parental stress and two specific factors: the realm of the child and the realm of the parent. The score relative to the realm of the parent varies according to the socioeconomic level and the marital status of the mother. The mother's age is negatively correlated with the score of the child's realm. The child's aggressiveness/hyperactivity level, as perceived by the teacher in a class situation, is positively correlated with the score of the subscale Difficulty to accept the child's characteristics and the subscale Distraction and hyperactivity of the child. The authors present benchmarks that were developed in order to take into account the noted differences between the Québec and U.S. samplings.

Fear of contagion: the public response to AIDS.

The threat of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has triggered a specific public response: fear of contagion, an anxiety over the perceived threat of catching the disease. Four behaviors characterize this fear: avoidance, attempting extreme precautions, lack of regard for the victims, and expressions of fear of catching the disease. Social and cultural values, which attach a deep symbolic meaning to AIDS, combine with misperceptions about transmission to create this public reaction. This fear results in the isolation and rejection of AIDS and potential AIDS clients. Fear of contagion may be a useful concept in nursing interventions for motivating risk-reduction behavior and creating a more therapeutic environment for persons with AIDS. Agendas for nursing research are suggested.