Family Functioning and Supportive Relations on the Mental Health of Children Due to Covid-19

The Influence of Family Functioning and Supportive Relations on The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents Post-Pandemic
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The Influence of Family Functioning and Supportive Relations on The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents Post-Pandemic
* Introduction
This integrated review aims to investigate the influence of family functioning and supportive relations on the mental health of children and adolescents post-pandemic. This integrated review will include six studies investigating how family functioning, school-adult relationships, and supportive peer networks, independently and conjointly, influence the mental health of children and adolescents. Understanding the correlation between the variables will help answer the broader question of how to improve the mental health of children and adolescents struggling with the mental health effects of the pandemic. The topic of interest is the mechanisms of family functioning and supportive relations in children and adolescent depression intervention. The research question undergirding the integrated review is: what is the influence of family functioning and supportive relations on the mental health of children and adolescents post-pandemic?
The hypothesis guiding the research proposal is that family functioning and supportive relations protect and improve the mental wellbeing of children and adolescents post-pandemic. This hypothesis is founded on various study findings, which indicate that family functioning, positive school-adult relationships, and supportive peer relationships are protective factors against low mental wellbeing among children and adolescents. The variables that interest me are family functioning, school adult relationships, supportive peer relationships, and the mental health of children and adolescents. These variables will help me identify the most suitable and relevant studies for inclusion in the integrated review. The integrated review is interested in studies that identify the correlation between the variables, particularly the mediating influence of family functioning and supportive relations on youngsters’ mental wellbeing. The independent variables are family functioning, school adult relationship, and supportive peer relationships. In contrast, the dependent variable is the mental health of children and adolescents.
The chosen topic is significant because of the growing rates of COVID-19-related anxiety and depressive symptoms among children and adolescents. More importantly, the study is significant because it examines the buffering effects of various social supports on depression. Several studies have shown a decline in children’s and adolescents’ mental health caused by pandemic-related school and health concerns. Many youngsters reported feeling “very concerned” about COVID-19, expressing high loneliness, anxiety, and depression. Before and during the pandemic, mental health data indicate a decline in quality of life among adolescents, including higher levels of behavioral problems and mental disorders. Uncertainties related to public health policies, such as widespread lockdowns and school closures, limited the social support provided by school adults and peers, exacerbating pandemic-related mental health effects. Understanding the role of family functioning and supportive relations in protecting the mental health of children and adolescents is crucial to improving their quality of life post-pandemic.
* Literature Search
The keywords and combinations used in the initial search included children, adolescents, mental health, peers, family functioning, social supports, teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, school climate, COVID-19, pandemic-related mental health effects, and mental wellbeing. These keywords and combinations provided the most useful results because they captured the specifics of the research question. Some of the databases used in the initial search are Springer Nature, Frontiers, and the National Library of Medicine. These databases were chosen because they contain high-quality, credible, and peer-reviewed healthcare data used by the provider, patients, researchers, teachers, and other stakeholders at all levels of the medical profession. The characteristics that make these databases the most reliable include accuracy, completeness, relevance, reliability, and timeliness. The four databases contained articles that met the five parameters. The inclusion criteria for the sample were that the study must quantitatively assess the correlation between family functioning, supportive relations within the school, and the mental health of children and adolescents.
It was paramount that the selected articles are relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, all studies that met the inclusion criteria but were published later than two years were excluded. The study found six articles that met all requirements of the integrated review.
* Methodology Analysis
The methodology used in the research was secondary research. The research conducted a systematic investigation of the six articles and focused solely on the data contained in the sources to arrive at specific research conclusions. This method was effective for the research question and hypothesis because the study articles selected for the integrated review were determined to contain authentic and reliable answers. The answers contained in the six articles were not only valid and credible but also helped to form the basis for further investigation. The statistical data analyses employed in the articles were descriptive and correlational. These analyses were appropriate in determining and ascertaining the influence of family functioning and supportive relations on the mental health of children and adolescents post-pandemic. The gaps in the literature related to the underlying reasons for the positive mediating influence of family functioning and supportive relations on adolescents’ mental health. Current literature provides evidence of a direct and positive relationship between social support systems and the mental health of children and adolescents. However, the reasons underlying this connection are not well explained.
These gaps may exist because the articles did not directly cater to the researcher's specific needs. The selected articles were not exclusive to the integrated review, and the slight differences in research objectives may have resulted in literature gaps. Although most of the literature reported similar findings, there were several inconsistencies across the studies. For instance, one study claimed that supportive peer relationships provided better protective effects for adolescents’ mental health than family functioning. In contrast, another study preferred school adult relationships over peer networks. These inconsistencies exist because of the differences in the location of the research and the time the research was conducted. Social contexts are influenced by geography and time: the location and timing of each research influenced the social context in which supportive relations operate and, thus, the differences in study findings.
* Synthesis and Interpretation
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Design

Method

Sample

Data collection

Data analysis

Validity and reliability

Butler et al. (2022)

Quantitative

Cross-sectional

The study used a sample of 794 adolescents: 51.4% were males, 48.6% were females, and with a mean age of 10.4 years

Survey

Descriptive and correlation analyses were conducted using SPSS v.26

The study employed accurate and consistent measurements throughout the research process.

Dändliker et al. (2022)

Quantitative

Cross-sectional

The study used a sample of 1,562 adolescents: 28% were males, 72% were females, and with a mean age of 16.18 years

Survey

Descriptive and correlation analyses were conducted using the MPlusAutomation package

The study employed accurate and consistent measurements throughout the research process.

Huang et al. (2022)

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