A longitudinal exploration of pandemic stress and family adaptation on child coping: The protective role of caregiver social support

The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant risks to children, yet there is little longitudinal research on children’s coping during this period. The current study used data from the Child Resilience and Managing Pandemic Emotional Distress (CRAMPED) Families project, a longitudinal study of 1,096 children nested within 548 families across seven timepoints from May 2020 to October 2022. We examined trajectories of child coping over 2.5 years of the pandemic and associations with COVID-19 stress, positive family adaptation, and caregiver social support. Multilevel modeling revealed a curvilinear trend of child coping, with an increase in coping in early months followed by declines over time, suggestive of allostatic load. Higher COVID-19 stress was negatively associated with coping, whereas higher family adaptation and caregiver social support were positively associated with coping. Social support buffered the association between COVID-19 stress and child coping. Despite the transition toward a “post-pandemic” society, continued focus on children’s long-term adjustment is warranted. Family-level supports appear crucial for promoting coping, and while caregiver’s social support is protective against stress, mobilization of additional resources (e.g., government, community) beyond the caregiver’s network may be necessary to promote healthy coping.