The COVID-19 global pandemic has forced millions of people to stay confined at home, increasing symptoms of anxiety and stress levels. Women who are also mothers, for their part, not only face the demands of motherhood but must combine working life with family life locked down in their homes. Main objective was to develop an explanatory model of the psychological consequences of COVID-19 and parental and perceived stress in mothers. A total of 261 mothers were evaluated coinciding with the lockdown imposed by the Spanish Government. The model displayed adequate indices and it was found that symptoms of anxiety in mothers increased the levels of perceived stress. The model allows to understand the close relationships between the psychological consequences of lockdown and stress in mothers. Understanding these relationships will help to prepare and direct psychological interventions in this population in the case of a possible new surge.
This study evaluated whether recent family member alcohol and substance use problems (ASP) and density of family ASP (i.e., number of members with ASP) predict alcohol-related problems and drug use-related problems among middle-aged and older adults. Data were drawn from participants (age 42-93 years, n=2,168) in the longitudinal Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS). Poisson regression models revealed that adults' alcohol- and drug use-related problems were predicted by similar problems among family members. In particular, parent and partner ASP, but not child ASP, predicted alcohol-related problems in the middle-aged and combined samples, while only partner ASP predicted participants' drug use-related problems. In addition, density of family ASP predicted alcohol-related problems, but not drug use-related problems. There were no gender interactions. Study findings highlight that understanding how adult children, spouses, and aging parents impact each other's substance use should be a priority of future aging and family research.

