Peer-reviewed article
A pilot study examining financial stress during COVID-19 and executive function in mental health in parents and children
Yi S, Daang E, Deer L, Hostinar C ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study looked at how financial stress during COVID-19 affected the thinking skills and mental health of 83 adolescents and their parents. Families who experienced job loss reported higher financial stress. The research found that financial stress was linked to weaker impulse control in teenagers and more mental health symptoms in parents, though not in adolescents. The study suggests that economic hardship may harm how children's brains develop during stressful periods.
Key points
- 37.8% of families in the study experienced job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Parental job loss was significantly correlated with greater financial stress (r=.342, p=.002)
- Financial stress was associated with worse inhibitory control in adolescents (r=-.232, p=.036)
- Financial stress was linked to more mental health symptoms in parents (r=.288, p=.009) but not in adolescents
- Financial stress showed an unexpected positive correlation with better parental working memory (r=.261, p=.018)
Limitations
This is a small pilot study with only 83 dyads measured at a single time point during a specific period of the pandemic, so we cannot determine whether these associations persist over time or in other populations. The cross-sectional design means we cannot establish whether financial stress caused the cognitive and mental health outcomes or whether these associations reflect reverse causation.
Abstract
Introduction Families have endured intense economic shock throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which may be linked to reduced cognitive performance as well as mental health outcomes of parents and children. The present study investigated how COVID-19-related financial stress and parental job loss impact executive functions and mental health in both parents and adolescents. Method Participants in the study were 83 adolescent-parent dyads (Adolescent Age M = 13.01 years, SD = 2.27, Parent Age M = 43.26, SD = 5.07) who participated remotely between April 25th and June 1st 2021. Both parents and adolescents completed three measures of executive function and also reported on their mental health symptoms using the MHI-5 and RCADS-short, respectively. Parents also reported on financial stress and whether they or their partner had lost employment during the pandemic (37.8% lost employment). Results Parental job loss was correlated with greater financial stress (r =.342, p =.002). Financial stress was correlated with worse adolescent inhibitory control (r = -.232, p =.036), but better parent working memory (r =.261, p =.018). Greater financial stress was associated with more mental health symptoms (r =.288, p =.009) for parents, but not adolescents. Conclusion These results suggest that financial stress may impact child executive function and parent mental health. Further research is needed, as the long-term repercussions of economic stress on mental health and executive functions may become more apparent as the pandemic progresses.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- None - this is an observational study examining natural variation in financial stress exposure
- Population
- 83 adolescent-parent dyads (mean adolescent age 13.01 years, mean parent age 43.26 years) in the United States during April-June 2021
Key finding
Financial stress correlated with worse adolescent inhibitory control (r=-.232, p=.036)