Assessing the Toxic Levels in Parenting Behavior and Coping Strategies Implemented During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemics have caused a lot of stressors for parents. Apart from doing daily activities, parents also have to take care of their children and accompany them to study. The number of stressors can lead to toxic behavior in parenting. This study aims to measure the level of toxicity in parenting behavior and coping strategies adopted by parents. This study uses quantitative descriptive methods to measure toxic levels in parenting behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 568 parents from Banjarmasin and Yogyakarta participated in this study. The survey results show that several factors can trigger parenting stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely worsening economic conditions, delinquent children, excessive anxiety, accumulated daily hassles, growing family demands, and disputes with spouses. However, some of these stressors do not lead to toxic parenting. The results showed that 97.79% of respondents from Banjarmasin and 95.29% from Yogyakarta showed a low toxic level. The remaining 2.21% of respondents in Banjarmasin and 4.71% of respondents in Yogyakarta indicated a moderate toxic level. Coping strategies are crucial for neutralizing stress. There are several strategies applied, namely trying to consider a problem is God's test, and there is a positive side to every problem; trying to address the source of stress and solving it; Withdrawing and finding individual time; looking for social support from the family and others; crying and releasing it by doing favorite things and capitulate and get back the problem. This Research is expected to be a reference for parents in choosing coping strategies to manage the stress they feel in parenting during the pandemic.

 Keywords: Toxic parenting; stress trigger, coping strategy; COVID-19

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