Coping strategies and psychological distress among mothers during COVID-19 pandemic: The moderating role of social support.

The Indonesian government implemented a large-scale social restriction policy as part of the efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. This policy impacted the population, including mothers, and caused considerable psychological distress. Individual efforts to cope (avoidant and approach coping strategies) and support from significant persons might help handle the distress experienced by mothers. The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the effect of individual coping strategies on psychological distress and the moderating role of social support among Indonesian mothers. An online survey was administered from 20th to 25th April 2020 to 1534 Indonesian mothers (Mean age 37.12 years; SD 6.63). Brief COPE (28 items), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale/DASS (18 items), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support/MSPSS (12 items) were used to measure coping strategies, psychological distress, and social support, respectively. IBM SPSS 24 software was used to analyze the data. The result showed that moderate and high levels of social support moderated the relationship between approach coping strategies and psychological distress (B = .041, CI .007-.075). When the mother uses approach coping, her psychological distress will decrease further whenever she receives moderate and high level social support. Any level of social support moderated the relationship between avoidant coping and psychological distress (B = -.100, CI -.138-.061). When mother used avoidant coping, her social support at any level served as buffer to her psychological distress. It can be concluded that mothers need to prioritize implementing approach coping strategies to lower their distress. Those who practiced avoidant coping strategies needed social support from their significant persons to decrease their distress.

Child Development Card (KKA) as a discriminant tool for the growth and development of stunted and normal children in Indonesia.

Background: Stunting is a significant concern in Indonesia, but its detection currently relies on anthropometric measurements, lacking the integration of comprehensive evaluations of child development. Therefore, the Child Development Card (KKA) serves as a valuable instrument employed to assess the growth and developmental aspects of children. Aim: This research aimed to investigate the potential of KKA as a discriminative tool for distinguishing between stunted and normal children. Methods: The participants consisted of 159 and 88 normal and stunted children aged 13-24 and 25-60 months. The aspects of children's development examined included passive communication, social behavior, gross motor skills, active communication, fine motor skills, intelligence, and self-help skills. Discriminant analysis was conducted to identify the developmental aspects differentiating stunted children from normal children. Results: The analysis using SPSS 25 showed that the discriminating aspects of children's development between stunted and normal children were gross motor skills, fine motor skills, passive communication, and intelligence. For the age group of 13-24 months, the discriminant function is represented as D = - 0.276 + 0.197 K - 0.511 GK + 0.361 KP. Meanwhile, for the age group of 25-60 months, the discriminant function is expressed as D = - 2.586 + 0.151 GK - 0.081 GH. Conclusion: Stunted and normal children could be differentiated based on four key aspects of development: gross and fine motor skills, passive communication, and intelligence. These findings aid in the early detection of stunted children and emphasize the crucial role of parental stimulation across these four aspects.