Experience of the covid-19 phenomenon in the context of marital and parent-child relationships

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought major changes on family relationship worldwide and the mandatory isolations made the development of home schooling and work a must. Objective: To explain marital conflict based on anxiety, parental stress, rough handling of children and the accompaniment of parents in their children’s school activities during confinement by COVID-19. Method: Descriptive, explanatory, mixed study, through questionnaire and interview. The Study was carried out in a sample of 899 Colombian and Aruban people. Results: the variable that weighted the most in women in Colombia was parental stress. In men it was anxiety which makes a greater contribution to marital conflict, followed by parental stress. In Aruba, the only variable that contributed significantly was parental stress. In both countries, a positive correlation with anxiety, parental stress and rough treatment. However, a negative correlation was found with the accompaniment of the children’s school activities. Conclusions: The pandemic increased marital conflicts, due to anxiety, parental stress, which sometimes generated rough handling of children and the spouse.