Examining ways to score the Epidemic-Pandemic Impacts Inventory in parents of young children.

Abstract

The Epidemic-Pandemic Impacts Inventory (EPII) is a 92-item measure developed to assess tangible impacts of the pandemic including both negative (work, home, social, and health) and positive changes. The EPII has been used in a variety of studies, but a standard scoring system has not been determined. Parents of young children (N = 216) completed the EPII, Perceived Stress Scale, Parenting Stress Scale, Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS-PA and PANAS-NA), and COVID-19 Stress Scale (CSS) online September 2021-May 2022. The EPII was scored in three ways represented in the literature to examine which scoring method accounted for the greatest amount of variance in parents' stress and mood, independent of demographic factors and CSS. Hierarchical linear regression results revealed that one EPII scoring method consistently accounted for the greatest amount of variance in each outcome variable (largest R2) compared to the other two scoring methods. Additionally, number of negative and positive pandemic impacts accounted for more variance (larger β coefficient) in each outcome compared to demographic factors and CSS, with the exception that negative pandemic impacts were not associated with PANAS-PA. One method of scoring the EPII may maximize the measures' potential to account for variance in stress and mood among parents of young children. The EPII may be a valuable measure to include in studies examining the impact of the pandemic on parents' well-being even beyond the peak of the pandemic, as its association with stress and mood appears to be long-lasting and independent of demographic factors and COVID-19 stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).