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Peer-reviewed

Research Article

The relationship between family variables and family social problems during the COVID-19 pandemic

Contributed equally to this work with: Saeko Kamoshida, Naoto Nihonmatsu

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Graduate School of Education, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Graduate School of Education, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Tokyo, Japan

Roles Supervision

¶ ‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work

Affiliation Faculty of Comprehensive Welfare, Tohoku Fukushi University, Sendai, Japan

Affiliation Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Saeko Kamoshida,
Naoto Nihonmatsu,
Gen Takagi,
Koubun Wakashima

Published: June 29, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270210
Reader Comments

This study examined the relationship between variables about family members co-residing during the COVID-19 pandemic and anxiety about COVID-19, domestic violence from spouse, child abuse anxiety, internet addiction, and mental health as social problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 220 parents (70 male and 150 female, age; M = 41.6, SD = 34.4) were included in the analysis. Stepwise hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted with dependent variables of fear of COVID-19, spousal violence, anxiety regarding perpetrating child abuse, internet addiction, and mental health. The independent variables were basic variables related to family members such as family composition. The results demonstrated that parents with preschool children were anxious about the possibility that they might abuse their children ( β = .203, p < .01). Subjects who smoked were associated with anxiety about being the victim of domestic violence by their spouse ( β = .154, p < .05). Those whose income had decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those who were employed, and those with few rooms in their house were more likely to be dependent on the Internet (in order, β = .189, p < .01; β = .196, p < .01; β = -.140, p < .05). Finally, mental health was impaired among those whose income was reduced by the COVID-19 pandemic ( β = .134, p < .05) and among those who had conflicting opinions in their families regarding the pandemic ( β = .206, p < .01). These results indicate that family variables are associated with family social problems. Additionally, we assume these have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While further research is required to determine the causal relationships among the variables, the findings can be used as an indicator of support that should be provided to families.

Citation: Kamoshida S, Nihonmatsu N, Takagi G, Wakashima K (2022) The relationship between family variables and family social problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS ONE 17(6): e0270210. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270210

Editor: Prabhat Mittal, Satyawati College (Eve.), University of Delhi, INDIA

Received: January 20, 2022; Accepted: June 4, 2022; Published: June 29, 2022

Copyright: © 2022 Kamoshida et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting information files.

Funding: The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The world is in the midst of a pandemic due to the spread of a new coronavirus (hereafter referred to as COVID-19). In addition to medical measures, the Japanese government has limited the flow of people in and out of cities, regions, and in some cases, countries, by locking down cities, introducing remote work systems such that only necessary employees can be physically present in the workplace, and closing schools. As a result, most people have faced some form of restriction of movement for over two years. As this has led people to spend more time with their families, family related problems have increased. Specifically, social trends include increases in child abuse, Internet addiction, problems related to nursing care [ 1 – 3 ], consultations regarding domestic violence and divorce [ 4 ], and suicide rates [ 5 ].

In Japan, there have not been many psychological studies focusing on social trends and the effects of COVID-19. However, if foreign studies are included, such as restrictions on going out and remote work due [ 6 – 8 ], anxiety and coping [ 9 – 11 ], and discrimination against infected people [ 12 ], fluctuation in intra-family communication and its association with preventive behavior [ 13 – 15 ], and children who spend more time looking at screens and less time exercising [ 16 – 18 ]. Several studies have shown that frequent intrafamily communication and parents telling their children about the risk of the virus may promote preventive behaviors within the family [ 14 , 15 ]. In one other study, parents of elementary school-aged children reported increases in irregular sleep, disordered eating habits, and use of games and smartphones among their children during the COVID-19 pandemic, Especially, disordered eating habits were related to stress responses such as psychosomatic symptom, depression and anxiety, anger, lacking energy [ 16 ].

Thus, COVID-19 social problems such as domestic violence, anxiety, and Internet addiction have not been examined. In the international literature focusing on these social trends, based on past experiences with SARS-CoV-2, Ebola, hurricanes, and water disasters, Usher et al. [ 19 ] argue incidentally that violence against women and children increases during disasters. According to Madanes and Madanes [ 20 ], problems such as economic deprivation, sexual problems, domestic violence, and abuse in the family are interrelated as deviations from the rules lead to other deviations, which can lead to a variety of problems. However, while previous studies have illustrated the impact of COVID-19 on families from various aspects, they have not examined the social trends of domestic violence, child abuse, and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To address the limitations, we need to include not only macro variables such as housing and economic conditions, but also various micro variables within the family, such as number of household members, family composition, time spent together, and number of rooms in the house, and their impact on social issues. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between variables about family members co-residing during the COVID-19 pandemic and anxiety about COVID-19, domestic violence and child abuse, Internet addiction, and mental health.

Materials and methods

This study was conducted in October 2021. In Japan, the average weekly number of patients infected with COVID-19 in early October 2021 was 1,810. The infection rate had decreased from the average weekly rate of 23,149 in August 2021, at the time of the fifth wave of the pandemic in Japan. The declaration of the state of emergency was subsequently lifted in October 2021 [ 21 ].

Of 234 parents with children (74 males and 160 females, age; M = 41.7, SD = 34.3), a total of 220 (70 males, 150 females; M = 41.6, SD = 34.4) were included in the analysis, after excluding two participants whose data were rated as of low quality according to Masuda’s operation check [ 22 ], which assesses whether participants read statements correctly.

The first author administered the questionnaire through a web-based survey company that targets for all Japanese people. Potential participants were informed that they were free to answer or not answer the questions as they wished, how personal information would be managed, and that referral to a consultation service was available for psychological problems arising from participation; participants who provided informed consent were recruited into the study.

Variables related to the study participants and their families, such as gender and age, were set as the key variables. These data consisted of sex; age; nationality; prefecture of residence; city, town or village of residence; smoking history; presence of respiratory disease currently being treated; disease other than respiratory disease currently being treated; mental disease currently being treated (anxiety disorder, depression, none, other); name of disease other than respiratory disease and mental disease currently being treated; occupation presence or lack thereof; and increase or decrease in income during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Family information collected included presence or absence of co-residence with family, number of family members, time spent with family members, number of rooms in the home, presence of older adults in the family, presence of pregnant women in the family, presence of preschool children in the family, presence of persons with respiratory diseases in the family, family members who were health care workers, presence of persons infected with COVID-19 including those previously infected, presence of unvaccinated persons, and presence of conflicting opinions about COVID-19 in the family.

Anxiety about COVID-19 was measured using the Fear of COVID-19 Scale—Japanese Version (FCV-19S-J) [ 9 ], which contains seven items, each of which is rated five-point scale. Frequency of domestic violence was measured using the Violence Against Women’s Screen [ 23 ], which consists of seven items presented in a three-part format, with a cutoff score of nine points denoting serious violence. Each item starts with “Your partner is” so that it can be used regardless of gender. Anxiety about perpetrating child abuse was measured using the Child Abuse Anxiety Scale [ 24 ], which comprises of 17 items and four methods regarding abuse anxiety, such as “I feel that I will eventually become very violent toward my children” and “I worry that others will think that I am also abusive.” The Japanese version of the Internet Addiction Test [ 25 ], which is based on a translation of Young’s (1996) Internet addiction test (IAT), was used to measure Internet addiction [ 26 ]. Mental health status was examined using the K6 [ 27 ], a 6-item, 5-point scale.

The first section of the survey stated its purpose. It also stated that participation was voluntary, the survey was anonymous, and personal information would not be disclosed to third parties. Only those who agreed to participate in the survey were able to complete the questionnaire. Additionally, The Tohoku University Graduate School of Education’s Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for this study (ID: 21-1-032).

IBM SPSS Statistics 28 was used for the statistical analysis. Ten basic dummy variables were created to classify participants as female, with a history of smoking, with diseases other than respiratory disease, with preschool children, a health care worker, infected or previously infected with coronavirus, employed, having lost income during the pandemic period, being vaccinated against COVID-19, and with presence of family conflict. The six variables with extremely skewed frequencies were excluded from the analysis, namely presence of respiratory disease, presence of mental illness, presence of older adult, presence of pregnant woman, presence of person, infected or previously infected with COVID-19, and presence of family member with respiratory disease. Composite scores were used in accordance with previous studies for the FCV-19S [ 9 ], the Violence Against Women Screen [ 23 ], the Child Abuse Anxiety Scale [ 24 ], and the Japanese version of the Internet Addiction Test [ 25 ], and the K6 [ 27 ]. Hierarchical stepwise multiple regression analysis was then conducted with each of five composite scores as the dependent variables in separate analyses with and the independent variables consisting of the basic variables. In Step 2, seven basic variables related to family members were introduced sequentially: number of people living together, shared time, number of rooms, presence or absence of preschool children, presence or absence of medical personnel, presence or absence of vaccinees, and presence or absence of family conflicts related to COVID-19.

The frequency distribution of the basic variables pertaining to the participants in this study is presented in Table 1 . Less than 10% of participants reported a positive response for six variables (presence of respiratory diseases, presence of psychiatric diseases, presence of older adults, presence of pregnant women, presence of persons currently or previously infected with COVID-19, and presence of family members with respiratory diseases). The descriptive statistics for each scale are illustrated in Table 2 .

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270210.t001

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270210.t002

A hierarchical multiple regression analysis did not identify a significantly predictive model for the FCV-19S J scores. However, the analysis of the violence against women screening scores led to significant R 2 value with a significant smoking ( R 2 = .019, β = .154,95CI = 0.12–1.57, p < .05). That is, being a smoker was associated with the perceived risk of being subjected to domestic violence. Among the 54 participants who reported smoking, 28 were male and 26 were female. Having a preschooler was also associated with anxiety that parents might abuse their children ( R 2 = .037, β = .203, 95CI = 1.34–6.20, p < .01).

For the Internet addiction test ( Table 3 ), the variance explained for step 3 was the highest; the R 2 value was significant, as was its increment from step 2 was also significant ( ⊿R 2 = .019, p < .05). Internet addiction was associated with decreased income following the pandemic ( β = .196, p < .01), being employed ( β = .189, p < .01), and living in a home with fewer rooms ( β = -.140, p < .05).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270210.t003

These results indicate that persons whose income decreased versus before the pandemic and those who were employed were more likely to report Internet addiction, while those with more rooms in their house were less likely to report Internet addiction. Note that most of the unemployed persons were women.

Table 4 shows that the coefficient of determination of step 2 of the model for K6 scores was the highest; the R 2 value was significant, as was its the increment from step 1 ( ΔR 2 = .042, p < .01). Larger K6 scores were associated with decreased income following the pandemic ( β = .134, p < .05) and the presence of family conflict regarding COVID-19 ( β = .206, p < .01).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270210.t004

This study, we examined the relationship between variables about family members co-residing during the COVID-19 pandemic and anxiety about COVID-19, domestic violenceanxiety regarding perpetrating child abuse, Internet addiction, and mental health. First, Individual and family variables such as occupation and the family member living together did not affect anxiety regarding COVID-19. This may be because that the public has become accustomed to the lifestyle caused by the pandemic. A longitudinal study of infection anxiety [ 28 ] demonstrated that infection anxiety was highest in December 2020, when the number of newly infected people increased rapidly as part of the third wave in Japan, but decreased in March 2021, when the number of newly infected people decreased. In response to these results, it has been suggested that the weakening of infection anxiety may be due to habituation to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as habituation to infection prevention measures, along with a decrease in crisis awareness after the period of high infection spread. Therefore, it is possible that no difference in infection anxiety was not significantly associated with any study variables because the survey was conducted during a period of decreased infections in Japan.

Being a smoker was associated with the perceived risk of being subjected to domestic violence. Smoking has been associated with severe respiratory failure due to COVID 19 [ 29 ]. Many smokers are aware of the risk [ 30 ]. Furthermore, smoking has been criticized by the public because it often occurs in crowded situations, in enclosed spaces, with unmasked persons [ 31 ]. Thus the public may be more nervous about smoking than before the spread of COVID-19 for three reason: first, smokers are more likely to be in close contact with others when using smoking areas; second, they are more likely than non-smokers to bring COVID-19 into the home; and third, passive smoking increases the risk of serious illness if a family member is infected with COVID-19. That is, smoking can cause marital conflict, which may lead to verbal abuse and violence in some cases. The location of the respondents’ smoking areas was also not disclosed; thus, it is unclear whether smoking is actually a trigger for family conflicts.

Having a preschooler was also associated with anxiety that parents might abuse their children. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan has indicated summarized that 43.5% of abused children are under six years old [ 32 , 33 ]. Mothers with children between newborn and preschool age were also the highest percentage of respondents (62.3%) who stated that discipline was a factor in child-rearing anxiety. A survey of mothers of infants and toddlers [ 34 ] demonstrated that there are conflicts in child rearing, such as regarding what constitutes good and bad discipline. We speculate that these conflicts may become more pronounced during the preschool years when child rearing is difficult; for this reason, the rate of abuse directed toward preschoolers is relatively high. It is highly likely that this is a general tendency, not simply an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was suggested that Internet addiction may occur among those who are currently working, those who have a lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and those with fewer rooms in their house. First, it has been indicated that there is a relationship between Internet addiction and the presence or absence of interference with social life [ 35 – 37 ]. However, the opposite results were found in the current study, as being employed was associated with higher Internet addiction scores. This may be because the social life of due to some people is not hindered by unemployment (e.g., homemakers and students). For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, being unemployed may reduce the risk of Internet addiction interfering with social life because issues with interpersonal relationships and activity may be alleviated by virtual contact (e.g., video chat).

It was also found that reduced income was associated with increased Internet addiction. However, it is necessary to consider indirect effects when interpreting the relationship between economic variables, such as income, and psychological variables. A survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan reported that the percentage of Internet users in households with an annual household income of 4 million yen or more exceeded 80% [ 38 ]. That is, a possible mechanism is that wealthier households simply own more smartphones and computers and have greater Internet access, which leads their addiction scores to appear higher. In contrast, during the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents of lower socioeconomic status are at higher risk of problematic Internet use than are those of wealthier socioeconomic status [ 39 ]. Taking all of these factors into consideration, loss of income due to reduced work hours following the COVID-19 pandemic is a leading risk factor for Internet addiction or hikikomori.

Finally, it was demonstrated that having fewer rooms at home was associated with increased Internet addiction scores. With respect to this result, rather than considering the relationship between housing type and individual Internet addiction, it is necessary to consider attributes factors such as economic status as a third variable. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, the percentage of persons who rent accommodations is greatest among in their 20s, and the percentage of persons in owner-occupied houses increases among those aged 30 years older [ 40 ]. That is, it is likely, if we assume that the number of rooms at home increases with age, income, and other social status, which is consistent with previous studies [ 41 , 42 ] that illustrate Internet addiction is serious among young people. Additionally, if the number of rooms is large, Internet use was controlled to some extent by their roommates’ lives. However, no association between age and IAT was found in the data of this study. The reason may be that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the increase in time spent at home and working from home. Therefore, we believe that this is because the rate of Internet use increased equally regardless of age.

Next, it was suggested that mental health may have been impaired among persons whose income had decreased following the COVID-19 pandemic and among whose family members had conflicting opinions regarding COVID-19. Decrease income typically reduces the standard of living and may increase the difficulty of maintaining adequate health. Bosako and Hoshi suggested that the amount of income may mediate the sense of happiness and life satisfaction and contribute to subjective health [ 43 ]. Thus, there is a clear relationship between living standards and health based on income. However, as the current data were not panel data, it is possible that the causal relationship may be reversed, such as a decrease in income due to poor mental health. Regarding conflicts among family members, there may be differences in awareness of the need for COVID-19 infection prevention among different age groups and educational levels, as well as differences in awareness of the need for vaccines. For example, study have shown that parents and their children are often divided on the pros and cons of vaccination [ 44 , 45 ]. Furthermore, Yigit et al. [ 45 ] reported differences according to gender and educational level. Therefore, we suggest that individual intentions are strongly reflected in vaccine decision-making, especially in the case of COVID-19. This may easily lead to conflicts within families, such as between couples, generations, and between generations of children. Such conflicts of opinion may increase tension within the family and affect the mental health of individuals.

Limitations

The primary limitation of this study is that it only examined effects at a single point in time; thus, it was not possible to determine causality, namely, whether the effects were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, it is necessary to carefully examine whether socioeconomic and psychological variables are directly related to each other or indirectly related to each other, such as through mediating variables. Further, some items were excluded from the analysis, such as presence of respiratory disease and presence of mental illness, because they frequency distribution was less than 10% of the total. Additionally, analysis of a single respondent in a household, rather than paired data, does not fully capture the entire picture of the family situation. Finally, Correlations between independent variables were not examined in detail. Therefore, we have not been able to confirm whether the effects are direct or indirect.

Conclusions

This study family variables, such as family composition were found to be associated with family-related social problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, parents of preschool children were more likely to be anxious about the possibility of them abusing of their children. Furthermore, smokers were more likely to report perceiving a risk of being a victim of spousal abuse and domestic violence from spouse. Those whose income had also decreased following the COVID-19 pandemic, and those who were employed, and those with few rooms in their houses were more likely to report Internet dependency. Finally, mental health was impaired among those whose income was reduced following the COVID-19 pandemic and among members of families with conflicting opinions about COVID-19.

Although it is difficult to interpret these results as indicating direct causality, the results could help inform risk assessments for family support. For example, the presence of a preschooler or a smoker in the family is an indicator of the risk of violence in the family. Alternatively, assessment of reduced income and differences in attitudes toward COVID-19 in the family may provide options for intervening in cases of mental illness and family problems.

Supporting information

S1 data. anonymized data set..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270210.s001

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the members of our study team and the participants who took part in our study.

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Family Conflict Is Normal; It’s the Repair That Matters

Three months into the pandemic, I had the urge to see my 28-year-old daughter and her husband, 2,000 miles away. She had weathered an acute health crisis, followed by community protests that propelled them both onto the streets to serve food and clean up neighborhoods. They were coping, but the accumulation of challenges made the mom in me want to connect with and support them. So, together with my husband, my other daughter, and her husband, our family of six adults and two dogs formed a new pod inside my daughter’s home in the steamy heat of the Minneapolis summer.

As I packed, a wisp of doubt crept in. We six hadn’t lived together under the same roof, ever . Would I blow it? Would I “flap my lips,” as a friend calls it, and accidentally say something hurtful? Some time back, in a careless moment of exhaustion, I had insulted my brand-new son-in-law with a thoughtless remark. He was rightfully hurt, and it took a long letter and a phone call to get us back on track.

My own siblings and I were raised inside the intractable rupture that was my parents’ marriage. Their lifelong conflict sowed discord and division in everyone around them. I worked hard to create a different, positive family climate with my husband and our children. My old ghosts were haunting me, though, and I didn’t want to ruin a good thing.

Yet research shows that it’s not realistic, or possible, or even healthy to expect that our relationships will be harmonious all the time. Everything we know from developmental science and research on families suggests that rifts will happen—and what matters more is how you respond to them. With many families spending more time together than ever now, there are ample opportunities for tension and hurt feelings. These moments also offer ample invitations to reconnect.

Disconnections are a fact of life

Researcher Ed Tronick, together with colleague Andrew Gianino, calculated how often infants and caregivers are attuned to each other. (Attunement is a back-and-forth rhythm of interaction where partners share positive emotions.) They found that it’s surprisingly little. Even in healthy, securely attached relationships, caregivers and babies are in sync only 30% of the time. The other 70%, they’re mismatched, out of synch, or making repairs and coming back together. Cheeringly, even babies work toward repairs with their gazes, smiles, gestures, protests, and calls.

These mismatches and repairs are critical, Tronick explains. They’re important for growing children’s self-regulation, coping, and resilience. It is through these mismatches—in small, manageable doses—that babies, and later children, learn that the world does not track them perfectly. These small exposures to the micro-stress of unpleasant feelings, followed by the pleasant feelings that accompany repair, or coming back together, are what give them manageable practice in keeping their boat afloat when the waters are choppy. Put another way, if a caregiver met all of their child’s needs perfectly, it would actually get in the way of the child’s development.   “Repairing ruptures is the most essential thing in parenting,” says UCLA neuropsychiatrist Dan Siegel , director of the Mindsight Institute and author of several books on interpersonal neurobiology.

Life is a series of mismatches, miscommunications, and misattunements that are quickly repaired, says Tronick , and then again become miscoordinated and stressful, and again are repaired. This occurs thousands of times in a day, and millions of times over a year.

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Read this article in Spanish on La Red Hispana, the public-facing media outlet and distribution house of HCN , focused on educating, inspiring, and informing 40 million U.S. Hispanics.

Other research shows that children have more conflicts and repairs with friends than non-friends. Sibling conflict is legendary; and adults’ conflicts escalate when they become parents. If interpersonal conflict is unavoidable—and even necessary—then the only way we can maintain important relationships is to get better at re-synchronizing them, and especially at tending to repairs when they rupture.

“Relationships shrink to the size of the field of repair,” says Rick Hanson , psychologist and author of several books on the neuroscience of well-being. “But a bid for a repair is one of the sweetest and most vulnerable and important kinds of communication that humans offer to each other,” he adds. “It says you value the relationship.”

Strengthening the family fabric

In a small Canadian study , researchers examined how parents of four- to seven-year-old children strengthened, harmed, or repaired their relationships with their children. Parents said their relationships with their children were strengthened by “horizontal” or egalitarian exchanges like playing together, negotiating, taking turns, compromising, having fun, or sharing psychological intimacy—in other words, respecting and enjoying one another. Their relationships were harmed by an over-reliance on power and authority, and especially by stonewalling tactics like the “silent treatment.” When missteps happened, parents repaired and restored intimacy by expressing warmth and affection, talking about what happened, and apologizing.

This model of strengthening, harming, and repairing can help you think about your own interactions. When a family relationship is already positive, there is a foundation of trust and a belief in the other’s good intentions, which helps everyone restore more easily from minor ruptures. For this reason, it helps to proactively tend the fabric of family relationships.   That can begin with simply building up an investment of positive interactions:

Spend “special time” with each child individually to create more space to deepen your one-to-one relationship. Let them control the agenda and decide how long you spend together.
Appreciate out loud, share gratitude reflections, and notice the good in your children intermittently throughout the day or week.

You also want to watch out for ways you might harm the relationship. If you’re ever unsure about a child’s motives, check their intentions behind their behaviors and don’t assume they were ill-intentioned. Language like, “I noticed that…” or “Tell me what happened…” or “And then what happened?” can help you begin to understand an experience from the child’s point of view.

A Loving Space for Kids’ Emotions

Show love to your children by helping them process emotions

When speaking to a child, consider how they might receive what you’re saying. Remember that words and silence have weight; children are “ emotional Geiger counters ” and read your feelings much more than they process your words. If you are working through feelings or traumas that have nothing to do with them, take care to be responsible for your own feelings and take a moment to calm yourself before speaking.

In this context of connection and understanding, you can then create a family culture where rifts are expected and repairs are welcomed:

Watch for tiny bids for repairs . Sometimes we have so much on our minds that we miss the look, gesture, or expression in a child that shows that what they really want is to reconnect.
Normalize requests like “I need a repair” or “Can we have a redo?” We need to be able to let others know when the relationship has been harmed.
Likewise, if you think you might have stepped on someone’s toes, circle back to check. Catching a misstep early can help.

When you’re annoyed by a family member’s behavior, try to frame your request for change in positive language; that is, say what you want them to do rather than what you don’t. Language like, “I have a request…” or “Would you be willing to…?” keeps the exchange more neutral and helps the recipient stay engaged rather than getting defensive.

You can also model healthy repairs with people around you, so they are normalized and children see their usefulness in real time. Children benefit when they watch adults resolve conflict constructively. 

Four steps to an authentic repair

There are infinite varieties of repairs, and they can vary in a number of ways, depending on your child’s age and temperament, and how serious the rift was.

Infants need physical contact and the restoration of love and security. Older children need affection and more words. Teenagers may need more complex conversations. Individual children vary in their styles—some need more words than others, and what is hurtful to one child may not faze another child. Also, your style might not match the child’s, requiring you to stretch further.

Some glitches are little and may just need a check-in, but deeper wounds need more attention. Keep the apology in proportion to the hurt. What’s important is not your judgment of how hurt someone should be, but the actual felt experience of the child’s hurt. A one-time apology may suffice, but some repairs need to be acknowledged frequently over time to really stitch that fabric back together. It’s often helpful to check in later to see if the amends are working.

While each repair is unique, authentic repairs typically involve the same steps.

1. Acknowledge the offense. First, try to understand the hurt you caused. It doesn’t matter if it was unintentional or what your reasons were. This is the time to turn off your own defense system and focus on understanding and naming the other person’s pain or anger.

Sometimes you need to check your understanding. Begin slowly: “Did I hurt you? Help me understand how.” This can be humbling and requires that we listen with an open heart as we take in the other person’s perspective.

Try not to undermine the apology by adding on any caveats, like blaming the child for being sensitive or ill-behaved or deserving of what happened. Any attempt to gloss over, minimize, or dilute the wound is not an authentic repair. Children have a keen sense for authenticity. Faking it or overwhelming them will not work.

A spiritual teacher reminded me of an old saying, “It is acknowledging the wound that gets the thorn out.” It’s what reconnects our humanity.

Making an Effective Apology

A good apology involves more than saying "sorry"

2. Express remorse. Here, a sincere “I’m sorry” is sufficient.

Don’t add anything to it. One of the mistakes adults often make, according to therapist and author Harriet Lerner , is to tack on a discipline component: “Don’t let it happen again,” or “Next time, you’re really going to get it.” This, says Lerner, is what prevents children from learning to use apologies themselves.   Apologizing can be tricky for adults. It might feel beneath us, or we may fear that we’re giving away our power. We shouldn’t have to apologize to a child, because as adults we are always right, right? Of course not. But it’s easy to get stuck in a vertical power relationship to our child that makes backtracking hard.

On the other hand, some adults—especially women, says Rick Hanson —can go overboard and be too effusive, too obsequious, or even too quick in their efforts to apologize. This can make the apology more about yourself than the person who was hurt. Or it could be a symptom of a need for one’s own boundary work.

There is no perfect formula for an apology except that it be delivered in a way that acknowledges the wound and makes amends. And there can be different paths to that. Our family sometimes uses a jokey, “You were right, I was wrong, you were right, I was wrong, you were right, I was wrong,” to playfully acknowledge light transgressions. Some apologies are nonverbal: My father atoned for missing all of my childhood birthdays when he traveled 2,000 miles to surprise me at my doorstep for an adult birthday. Words are not his strong suit, but his planning, effort, and showing up was the repair. Apologies can take on all kinds of tones and qualities.

3. Consider offering a brief explanation. If you sense that the other person is open to listening, you can provide a brief explanation of your point of view, but use caution, as this can be a slippery slope. Feel into how much is enough. The focus of the apology is on the wounded person’s experience. If an explanation helps, fine, but it shouldn’t derail the intent. This is not the time to add in your own grievances—that’s a conversation for a different time.

4. Express your sincere intention to fix the situation and to prevent it from happening again. With a child, especially, try to be concrete and actionable about how the same mistake can be prevented in the future. “I’m going to try really hard to…” and “Let’s check back in to see how it’s feeling…” can be a start.

Remember to forgive yourself, too. This is a tender process, we are all works in progress, and adults are still developing. I know I am.

Prior to our visit, my daughter and I had a phone conversation. We shared our excitement about the rare chance to spend so much time together. Then we gingerly expressed our concerns.

“I’m afraid we’ll get on each other’s nerves,” I said.

“I’m afraid I’ll be cooking and cleaning the whole time,” she replied.

So we strategized about preventing these foibles. She made a spreadsheet of chores where everyone signed up for a turn cooking and cleaning, and we discussed the space needs that people would have for working and making phone calls.

Then I drew a breath and took a page from the science. “I think we have to expect that conflicts are going to happen,” I said. “It’s how we work through them that will matter. The love is in the repair.”

This article is excerpted from a longer article on Diana Divecha’s blog, developmentalscience.com.

About the Author

Diana Divecha

Diana Divecha, Ph.D. , is a developmental psychologist, an assistant clinical professor at the Yale Child Study Center and Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and on the advisory board of the Greater Good Science Center. Her blog is developmentalscience.com .

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A Research Guide
Research Paper Topics

40 Family Issues Research Paper Topics

Read Also: The Best Research Paper Writing Service For Writing Research Papers

40 Marriage and Family Research Topics for any Taste

Parental neglect. Is it enough for a kid to have food, clothes, and shelter to grow up healthy?
Divorce and its consequences for all the family members. Minimizing the negative impact of divorce
Toxic and narcissistic parents. Overcoming the trauma of a dysfunctional family
To live up to the family expectation: what to do if they are too high for a human being?
Family violence: where is the point of no return?
Sexual abuse in the family. The strategy of escaping and organizations that can help
Toxic and abusive relationship. The psychologies issues of breaking up with toxic partner
Substance abuse in the family. It is always possible to save yourself, but is it possible to save the rest?
War Veterans and their families. Do Vets the only ones there who need help?
Accepting the LGBTQ+ member of the family
Getting out of the closet: what is like to be an LGBTQ+person in a conservative family?
Loss of a family member: stages of grief of children and adults. How to cope together?
Religious conflicts in families: what to do and how to solve?
Teenage delinquency: when it turns to be more than natural seeking independence?
Fostering a child: what problems can the parents face?
Generation gap. The difference in morals and culture. Is it normal?
Living with senile family members: how to cope and avoid emotional burnout?
Mentally challenged family members: how to integrate them into society?
The importance of family support for people with disabilities
Pregnancy and the first year of having a baby: do tiredness and depression make people bad parents?
The types of relationship in the family: are they healthy and just unusual or something is harmful to family members?
Life after disasters: how to put life together again? The importance of family support
The issue of an older sibling. How to make every kid feel equally loved?
Gender discrimination in families. Gender roles and expectations
Multicultural families: how do their values get along?
Children from previous marriages: how to help them accept the new family?
Childhood traumas of parents: helping them not to transfer them to the next generation
Every family can meet a crisis: how to live it through in a civilized way?
Family counseling: why it is so important?
Accidentally learned the secrets of the family: how to cope with unpleasant truth?
Adultery: why it happens and what to do to prevent it?
Career choice: how to save the relationships with the family and not inherit the family business?
The transition to adult life: the balance between family support and letting the young adult try living their own life
Unwanted activities: shall the family take warning or it is just trendy now?
Returning of a family member from prison: caution versus unconditional love
A family member in distress: what can you do to actually help when someone close to you gets in serious troubles?
The absence of love. What to do if you should love someone but can’t?
Ageism in families. Are older people always right?
Terminal diseases and palliative care. How to give your family member a good life?
Where can seek help the members of the dysfunctional families?

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Common family issues & how to deal with them, from experts.

No family is perfect, but for people whose family life has never been outright "bad," it can be tricky to spot family issues as they arise. Family problems are much more than abuse or addiction, for example, and include a host of different things that affect every member of a family. Here's how to spot family issues and deal with them, according to experts.

What are family issues?

Family problems or issues include any sort of dynamic, behavior, and/or pattern that disrupts the household or family at large. They can range from smaller, more common challenges like clashing personalities or divvying up household chores, to more intense issues like having a narcissistic parent , abuse, or intergenerational trauma, according to licensed psychotherapist Babita Spinelli, L.P.

The main thing with any family issue is that it creates stress and tension within the family, which in turn negatively affects the members of that family, particularly if there are young children involved.

Types of family issues:

Clashing and/or toxic personalities.

Starting off basic, it's far from uncommon for a family to have clashing personalities. Perhaps siblings don't get along with one another, or one child doesn't get along with one or both parents, psychotherapist Annette Nuñez, Ph.D., LMFT, tells mbg.

This can go a big step further when you're dealing with someone who displays narcissistic tendencies or other toxic traits , Spinelli adds, which introduces a bunch of other issues into the family unit, such as gaslighting or explosive fighting.

Poor communication

Nuñez and Spinelli both note that lack of open and healthy communication is at the root of many more general family problems. As Spinelli explains, if it's really difficult to actually speak to a family member, if there are trust issues , if they dismiss you, or issues get swept under the rug, those are all family issues surrounding communication.

Heavy pressure from parents

Perfectionism within a family can have extremely negative effects on children and their self-worth. As Nuñez notes, when parents shame or dictate how children should feel or be, it can take a toll on their ability to grow as individuals. "Parents do need to have some boundaries but not when it gets to the point where it's emotionally abusive," she explains.

Things like conditional love, or a deep sense of pressure to meet the expectations of your family, indicate some family issues, Spinelli adds. It could even lead to what's known as golden child syndrome .

Different parenting styles

One of the biggest hurdles of parenting as a couple is figuring out how to combine your parenting styles in an effective way. When you can't, it can cause some problems.

"It can cause a lot of tension when parents aren't on the same page with parenting," Nuñez tells mbg. And if you're dealing with extended family, Spinelli adds, having the input of in-laws when it comes to your parenting can also cause some problems.

So many families will deal with challenges surrounding finances, budgeting, and employment. Spinelli says money problems can include one parent making all the money and feeling burdened, not having enough basic funds for what you need, generational issues around poverty or gambling, and so much more. Money touches most areas of our life, and if there are issues here, the effects will be felt within any family.

Managing the household

It might seem juvenile, but chores really matter. If one person is carrying the weight of maintaining the household , that's a lot of responsibility and pressure. Nuñez notes it's important for household labor to be divided up in a fair and age-appropriate way, so one parent doesn't feel taken advantage of, and children begin learning how to take care of themselves.

Unchecked addiction or mental health issues

If a parent (or even a child) is dealing with mental health issues or addiction, that can cause a huge rift within a family unit. It's important for those things to not only be addressed but also talked about in an open and honest way.

As Nuñez explains, "If a parent feels like they're hiding mental illness or any type of substance abuse from a child, kids pick up on that. They pick up on those nonverbal cues of inconsistency, and children do need consistency to have a strong family foundation and feel secure."

Constant arguing

If you grew up thinking constant arguing was normal, according to Spinelli, it's very much not. "Some people don't realize that the constant bickering and arguing is actually an issue—they're just so used to it. They don't realize that when there's yelling or screaming and arguing, that actually creates stress and tension."

It's not uncommon, but yes, divorce certainly does disrupt a family unit and can cause problems when it's swept under the rug. "You'd be surprised how many people haven't processed divorce in the family," Spinelli says, adding, "It really does impact how you see relationships, and models fears around relationships, and often people don't even talk about it in the family."

While it can be hard to avoid, distance within a family can cause a lot of issues around expectations and boundaries, according to Spinelli. For example, as the holidays approach, there are often arguments around who's visiting whom, why someone has decided not to visit that year, and so on, she explains.

Codependency

" Codependency comes in all shapes and sizes," Spinelli tells mbg. While some instances of codependency are mild, the more enmeshment you find within a family, the more the individual members of that family will have a hard time distinguishing their own wants, needs, and desires, she says.

Scheduling conflicts

Nuñez notes that another common family issue is scheduling conflicts. If one or more family members has a busy schedule, it can be hard to connect together and make time for each other. This can look like one parent who works long hours and is rarely home during the day, or issues with scheduling as children get more involved with extracurriculars, she explains.

Intergenerational trauma

Last but not least, intergenerational trauma is a huge, often unaddressed family problem that stems back through generations. According to Spinelli, if past generations experienced things like extreme poverty, racial trauma, sudden death, addiction, mental health issues, and so much more, all of that can be passed down through generations.

"If something has happened in the previous generation, and that family member never dealt with it, that fight-or-flight and what they went through seeps into the other family members," Spinelli says.

How family issues affect us.

There are so many ways all of the aforementioned family issues can affect the members of that family, particularly children in their formative years of life. For example, "Children may start having behavioral issues, which then in return causes parents to get upset and the kids act out more," Nuñez explains. And that's just one more immediate example.

Our childhood experiences play out in adulthood through attachment wounds , as we bring those dysfunctional patterns into our adult relationships, she adds. "Let's say a parent leaves at a developmental age where a child needs a parent, for example. That brings up abandonment issues ," she notes.

Overall, a significant number of unaddressed family issues can make people feel that they don't have true safety in their lives, Spinelli says. "It's going to lead into attachment issues. Maybe they've dealt with abuse, neglect, abandonment, which has created an insecure attachment . They may also become an avoidant because they've never been modeled unconditional love by their primary caregiver," she explains.

Signs of family issues:

Difficulty with open, honest, and healthy communication
Frequent fights or bickering
Frequent yelling and screaming
Passive-aggressive behavior
An absent parent or parents (physically and/or emotionally)
Abuse of any kind (physical, emotional, and/or verbal abuse )
Codependent behavior and/or enmeshment
Struggles around finances or employment
Perfectionism or high standards within the family
Disagreements on household chores, parenting styles, etc.
Tension in the household for no clear reason
Difficulty trusting family members

What to do if you're dealing with family issues:

Identify what the specific issue is..

If you're getting the sense that you're dealing with some family dysfunction, the first thing you'll want to do is get clear on what specifically you're dealing with. Is it controlling parents ? Scheduling conflicts? Lack of communication?

Whatever the issue, Nuñez and Spinelli both note recognizing it is the first step. From there, you can begin processing how you want to bring it up to your family members, which brings us to our next point.

Talk about it.

Nothing gets solved by sweeping it under the rug, and family issues are no exception. Nuñez and Spinelli both say you'll want to address any issues weighing on your mind, even if it's not easy.

"Give yourself permission to say 'Hey, I feel angry or resentful, and I need to talk about this,'" Spinelli says. And as Nuñez notes, you can soften the blow using language that's not directed at them, opting for "I" statements, rather than "you" statements (i.e., "I feel sad when you miss dinner," instead of "You always miss dinner; you're so inconsiderate.")

Nuñez also adds that it's a good idea to pick a low-stress time when you can give each other your undivided attention and energy. (So, probably not around the holidays.)

Consider seeking professional help.

Once you've aired out some of your concerns, it may be necessary to ask for the help of a professional. Whether you opt for individual therapy, couples' therapy , or family therapy is up to you and your family, but any of them can certainly help in understanding how family problems have affected you—and how to deal with them.

"And even if a family doesn't go to therapy, it's important for every person to feel like they have a voice in their family, and to speak up, and to really voice what they need within that unit," Nuñez says.

Set boundaries.

And last but certainly not least, when all else fails, boundaries with family are a necessity in keeping a family dynamic as healthy as possible for everyone. "Really think about the ways you can set boundaries and give yourself permission," Spinelli says.

Whether you opt out of going to every family gathering, keep your distance from family members who make you uncomfortable or angry, or simply tell a family member when their behavior is unacceptable to you, Spinelli says you're completely in your right to do so.

The bottom line.

No family is without a little dysfunction. After all, it was spiritual icon Ram Dass who once said, "'If you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family."

But no matter how many problems your family seems to be facing, all it takes is one of you to identify the problems at hand, work through them, and break the chain for future generations.

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The Impact of Family Problems in the Academic Performance of HUMSS Grade 12 Students in Bestlink College of the Philippines

Lyca S. Brian
Nicole Ann M. Genavia
John Estefano G. Gososo
Norman M. Rosales Jr.
Jessalyn L. Tapon
Aarol Michael C. Valenzuela

Family as the basic unit of society plays a big role in the educational aspect of their family members. Although problems are inevitable inability to manage it may affect the behavior and the academic performance of the students. This study aimed to determine the effects of Family Problems to the academic performance of Grade 12 HUMSS Students in Bestlink College of the Philippines. This study will really help student to overcome their Family Problems and can identified what issues that they are facing right now. The researchers used Qualitative method and Descriptive Research Resign to obtain general overview of the topic that pertain to the impact of family problems in the academic performance of Grade 12 students. Survey Questionnaire was used to gather information needed to discuss the topic. Cluster sampling technique has been conducted in choosing the respondents. The study found out that family problems seriously affect the performance of the students in particular to their attendance and performance. Family problems that involve financial difficulties, relationship and bad habits are the contributing factors in the performance of the students. Lack of financial support impacts the student’s attendance and compliance with the school projects and activities. Students choose not to attend the class than to stay hunger one day in school. Family relationship on the other hand, impacts the student’s emotional level. It impacts to their focus in class. Wrong culture of the family brings out bad behavior and habit to the students. Family problems are inevitable and creates a big impact to the academic performances of the students. This awareness may help the teachers and parents to help the students who are encountering serious family problems to pursue their students despite those family issues and challenges. They have to develop a positive spirit and positive response in life.

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New Facts About Families

Recent findings on family meals, cohabitation and divorce.

by D’Vera Cohn, Senior Writer, Pew Research Center

More than 2,000 demographers, sociologists and others converged on Washington, D.C., recently for the Population Association of America’s annual meeting . Among the poster sessions and papers presented were some that dispute the popular (or academic) wisdom about important aspects of family life. Three are described here, along with Pew Research Center survey findings that bear on the topics they cover — family meals, cohabitation and divorce.

Conference presentations are typically works-in-progress, to be revised as more information becomes available or challenges to their methodology are resolved. They are not the final word on these topics, and should not be taken as the new conventional wisdom. But they raise valuable questions about substantive issues.

Family Meals

Take family meals, for example. Everybody knows that children turn out better if they grow up in a home where the family gathers around the dinner table each night, right? Not so fast, according to a poster presented by researchers from Boston University and Columbia University. They used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to ask whether academic performance and behavior of children from kindergarten through eighth grade could be linked to how often they ate breakfast or dinner with their families. (They accounted for — in research parlance, “controlled for” — factors such as family income and school quality that also could affect their results.)

[family meal frequency]

A recent Pew Research Center report on family issues includes some data on frequency of family meals, taken from a survey of adults last October. Among parents of children under age 18, half say they have dinner every day with some or all of their children, 34% say they have family meals a few times a week, 11% say they do so occasionally and 3% say they never do.

Cohabitation

On the topic of cohabitation, everybody knows that couples who live together before marriage are more likely to divorce than couples who do not, because that is what much research has found. But some recent work disputes that conclusion. Now that most couples move in together before they marry, cohabitation may not be as linked to divorce as it was when live-in couples were less common.

The Pew Research Center report on families , released last year, found that 44% of adults (and more than half of 30- to 49-year-olds) say they have cohabited at some point. Nearly two-thirds of adults who ever cohabited (64%) say they thought about it as a step toward marriage. The report also notes a trend toward rising public acceptance of cohabiting couples over the years. Most Americans now say the rise in unmarried couples living together either makes no difference to society (46%) or is good for society (9%).

A paper by Bowling Green State University researchers , using data from the National Survey of Family Growth , concluded that among women who married since the mid-1990s, cohabitation is not tied to heightened risk of divorce. Looking at women who married in the past 15 years, “our work shows that cohabitation no longer influences marital instability,” wrote researchers Wendy D. Manning and Jessica A. Cohen in the paper they presented at the population meeting.

An abundance of research about divorce links it to increased risk of problems for children both in the immediate aftermath of the split and later on in life. In fact, the phrase “intergenerational transmission of divorce” is used to describe the elevated risk of divorce among children whose parents divorced. But in certain cases, a parent’s divorce does not raise the risk that their children’s marriages or cohabitations will break up, according to a paper by researchers at Montclair State University .

Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households , Constance T. Gager and Miriam R. Linver compared the relationship paths of adult children who grew up in different types of households. They focused especially on children whose parents often argued. In general, having “high conflict parents” is associated with a child’s higher risk of divorce in adulthood, but the researchers concluded that it also matters whether the parents stay together or split up. They wrote: “Our key findings are that children who had high conflict parents are less likely to have experienced a cohabiting or marital dissolution if their parents divorced compared to children from high conflict families whose parents remained together.”

A 2007 Pew Research Center report found that most Americans (58%) think that divorce is preferable to staying in an unhappy marriage. A larger majority (67%) says that in a marriage where the parents are very unhappy with each other, the children are better off if their parents get divorced; 19% say the children are better off if their parents stay together; and 9% say it depends.

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Front Psychiatry

Family and Academic Stress and Their Impact on Students' Depression Level and Academic Performance

1 School of Mechatronics Engineering, Daqing Normal University, Daqing, China

2 School of Marxism, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China

Jacob Cherian

3 College of Business, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Noor Un Nisa Khan

4 Faculty of Business Administration, Iqra University Karachi Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan

Kalpina Kumari

5 Faculty of Department of Business Administration, Greenwich University Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

Muhammad Safdar Sial

6 Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad, Pakistan

Ubaldo Comite

7 Department of Business Sciences, University Giustino Fortunato, Benevento, Italy

Beata Gavurova

8 Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies, Technical University of Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia

József Popp

9 Hungarian National Bank–Research Center, John von Neumann University, Kecskemét, Hungary

10 College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Associated Data

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Current research examines the impact of academic and familial stress on students' depression levels and the subsequent impact on their academic performance based on Lazarus' cognitive appraisal theory of stress. The non-probability convenience sampling technique has been used to collect data from undergraduate and postgraduate students using a modified questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. This study used the SEM method to examine the link between stress, depression, and academic performance. It was confirmed that academic and family stress leads to depression among students, negatively affecting their academic performance and learning outcomes. This research provides valuable information to parents, educators, and other stakeholders concerned about their childrens' education and performance.

Introduction

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are believed to be one of the strongest pillars in the growth of any nation ( 1 ). Being the principal stakeholder, the performance of HEIs mainly relies on the success of its students ( 2 ). To successfully compete in the prevailing dynamic industrial environment, students are not only supposed to develop their knowledge but are also expected to have imperative skills and abilities ( 3 ). In the current highly competitive academic environment, students' performance is largely affected by several factors, such as social media, academic quality, family and social bonding, etc. ( 4 ). Aafreen et al. ( 2 ) stated that students continuously experience pressure from different sources during academic life, which ultimately causes stress among students.

Stress is a common factor that largely diminishes individual morale ( 5 ). It develops when a person cannot handle their inner and outer feelings. When the stress becomes chronic or exceeds a certain level, it affects an individual's mental health and may lead to different psychological disorders, such as depression ( 6 ). Depression is a worldwide illness marked by feelings of sadness and the inability to feel happy or satisfied ( 7 ). Nowadays, it is a common disorder, increasing day by day. According to the World Health Organization ( 8 , 9 ), depression was ranked third among the global burden of disease and predicted to take over first place by 2030.

Depression leads to decreased energy, difficulty thinking, concentrating, and making career decisions ( 6 ). Students are a pillar of the future in building an educated society. For them, academic achievement is a big goal of life and can severely be affected if the students fall prey to depression ( 10 , 11 ). There can be several reasons for this: family issues, exposure to a new lifestyle in colleges and universities, poor academic grades, favoritism by teachers, etc. Never-ending stress or academic pressure of studies can also be a chief reason leading to depression in students ( 12 ). There is a high occurrence of depression in emerging countries, and low mental health literacy has been theorized as one of the key causes of escalating rates of mental illness ( 13 ).

Several researchers, such as ( 6 , 14 , 15 ) have studied stress and depression elements from a performance perspective and reported that stress and depression negatively affect the academic performance of students. However, Aafreen et al. ( 2 ) reported contradictory results and stated that stress sharpens the individual's mind and reflexes and enables workers to perform better in taxing situations. Ardalan ( 16 ) conducted a study in the United States (US). They reported that depression is a common issue among students in the US, and 20 percent of them may have a depressive disorder spanning 12 months or more. It affects students' mental and physical health and limits their social relationships and professional career.

However, the current literature provides mixed results on the relationship between stress and performance. Therefore, the current research investigates stress among students from family and academic perspectives using Lazaru's theory which describes stress as a relation between an individual and his environment and examines how it impacts students' depression level, leading to their academic performance. Most of the available studies on stress and depression are from industrial perspectives, and limited attention is paid to stress from family and institutional perspectives and examines its impact on students' depression level, leading to their academic performance, particularly in Pakistan, the place of the study. Besides, the present study follows a multivariate statistical technique, followed by structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationship between stated variables which is also a study's uniqueness.

This paper is divided into five main sections. The current section provided introduction, theoretical perspective, and background of the study. In the second section, a theoretical framework, a detailed literature review and research hypotheses of the underlying relationships are being proposed. In the third and fourth section, methodology and analysis have been discussed. Finally, in the last section, the conclusion, limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research have been proposed.

Theory and Literature

The idea of cognitive appraisal theory was presented in 1966 by psychologist Richard Lazarus in Psychological Stress and Coping Process. According to this theory, appraisal and coping are two concepts that are central to any psychological stress theory. Both are interrelated. According to the theory, stress is the disparity between stipulations placed on the individuals and their coping resources ( 17 ). Since its first introduction as a comprehensive theory ( 18 ), a few modifications have been experienced in theory later. The recent adaptation states that stress is not defined as a specific incitement or psychological, behavioral, or subjective response. Rather, stress is seen as a relation between an individual and his environment ( 19 ). Individuals appraise the environment as significant for their well-being and try to cope with the exceeding demands and challenges.

Cognitive appraisal is a model based on the idea that stress and other emotional processes depend on a person's expectancies regarding the significance and outcome of an event, encounter, or function. This explains why there are differences in intensity, duration, and quality of emotions elicited in people in response to the environment, which objectively, are equal for all ( 18 ). These appraisals may be influenced by various factors, including a person's goals, values, motivations, etc., and are divided into primary and secondary appraisals, specific patterns of which lead to different kinds of stress ( 20 ). On the other hand, coping is defined as the efforts made by a person to minimize, tolerate, or master the internal and external demands placed on them, a concept intimately related to cognitive appraisal and, therefore, to the stress-relevant person-environment transactions.

Individuals experience different mental and physiological changes when encountering pressure, such as stress ( 21 , 22 ). The feelings of stress can be either due to factors in the external environment or subjective emotions of individuals, which can even lead to psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression. Excess stress can cause health problems. A particularly negative impact has been seen in students due to the high level of stress they endure, affecting their learning outcomes. Various methods are used to tackle stress. One of the methods is trying to pinpoint the causes of stress, which leads us to different terms such as family stress and academic stress. The two factors, stress and depression, have greatly impacted the students' academic performances. This research follows the Lazarus theory based on stress to examine the variables. See the conceptual framework of the study in Figure 1 .

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Conceptual framework.

Academic Stress

Academic issues are thought to be the most prevalent source of stress for college students ( 23 ). For example, according to Yang et al. ( 24 ), students claimed that academic-related pressures such as ongoing study, writing papers, preparing for tests, and boring professors were the most important daily problems. Exams and test preparation, grade level competitiveness, and gaining a big quantity of knowledge in a short period of time all contribute to academic pressure. Perceived stress refers to a condition of physical or psychological arousal in reaction to stressors ( 25 , 26 ). When college students face excessive or negative stress, they suffer physical and psychological consequences. Excessive stress can cause health difficulties such as fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, and gastrointestinal issues. Academic stress has been linked to a variety of negative effects, including ill health, anxiety, depression, and poor academic performance. Travis et al. ( 27 ), in particular, discovered strong links between academic stress and psychological and physical health.

Family Stress

Parental participation and learning effect how parents treat their children, as well as how they handle their children's habits and cognitive processes ( 28 ). This, in turn, shapes their children's performance and behaviors toward them. As a result, the parent-child relationship is dependent on the parents' attitudes, understanding, and perspectives. When parents have positive views, the relationship between them and their children will be considerably better than when they have negative attitudes. Parents respond to unpleasant emotions in a variety of ways, which can be classified as supportive or non-supportive ( 29 ). Parents' supportive reactions encourage children to explore their emotions by encouraging them to express them or by assisting them in understanding and coping with an emotion-eliciting scenario. Non-supportive behaviors, such as downplaying the kid's emotional experience, disciplining the child, or getting concerned by the child's display, transmit the child the message that expressing unpleasant emotions is inappropriate and unacceptable. Supportive parental reactions to unpleasant emotions in children have been linked to dimensions of emotional and social competence, such as emotion comprehension and friendship quality. Non-supportive or repressive parental reactions, on the other hand, have been connected to a child's stored negative affect and disordered behaviors during emotion-evoking events, probably due to an inability or unwillingness to communicate unpleasant sentiments ( 30 , 31 ).

Academic Stress and Students' Depression Levels

Generally, it is believed that mental health improves as we enter into adulthood, and depression disorder starts to decline between the age of 18 and 25. On the other hand, excessive depression rates are the highest pervasiveness during this evolution ( 15 ), and many university students in the particular screen above clinical cut-off scores for huge depression ( 14 , 32 ). Afreen et al. ( 2 ) stated that 30% of high school students experience depression from different perspectives. This means a major chunk of fresh high school graduates are more likely to confront depression or are more vulnerable to encountering depression while enrolling in the university. As the students promote to a higher level of education, there are many factors while calculating the stress like, for example, the syllabus is tough to comprehend, assignments are quite challenging with unrealistic deadlines, and accommodation problems for the students who are shifted from other cities, etc. ( 33 ). Experiences related to university can also contribute while studying depression. The important thing to consider is depression symptoms vary from time to time throughout the academic years ( 34 ); subjective and objective experiences are directly connected to the depression disorder ( 6 ), stress inherent in the university situation likely donates to the difference in university students' depressing experiences.

Stress negatively impacts students' mental peace, and 42.3% of students of Canadian university respondents testified devastating levels of anxiety and stress ( 35 , 36 ). Moreover, there were (58.1%) students who stated academic projects are too tough to handle for them. In Germany, Bulgaria, and Poland, a huge sample of respondents consider assignments a burden on their lives that cannot stand compared to relationships or any other concern in life ( 14 ).

In several countries, university students were studied concerning stress, and results show that depression disorder and apparent anxiety are correlated to educational needs and demands ( 37 ). In their cross-sectional study conducted on a sample of 900 Canadian students, Lörz et al. ( 38 ) concluded that strain confronted due to academic workload relatively has high bleak symptoms even after controlling 13 different risk affecting factors for depression (e.g., demographic features, abusive past, intellectual way, and personality, currently experienced stressful trials in life, societal support). Few have exhibited that students who are tired of educational workload or the students who name them traumatic tend to have more depressing disorders ( 15 ).

These relations can be described by examining the stress and coping behaviors that highlight the role of positive judgments in the stress times ( 39 ), containing the Pancer and colleagues' university modification framework ( 40 , 41 ). The evaluation concept includes examining the circumstances against the available resources, for instance, the effectiveness of coping behavior and societal support. As per these frameworks, if demand is considered unapproachable and resources are lacking, confronted stress and interrelated adverse effects will be high, conceivably giving birth to difficulties in an adjustment like mental instability. Stress triggering situations and the resources in the educational area led to excessive workload, abilities, and study and enhanced time managing skills.

Sketching the overall evaluation frameworks, Pancer et al. ( 40 ) established their framework to exhibit the constructive and damaging adjustment results for the university students dealing with the academic challenges. They stated that while students enroll in the university, they evaluate all the stress-related factors that students confront. They consider them manageable as long as they have sufficient resources. On the other hand, if the available resources do not match the stress factors, it will surely result in a negative relationship, which will lead students to experience depression for sure. Based on the given arguments, the researcher formulates the following hypothesis:

H1: Increased academic stress results in increased depression levels in students.

Family Stress and Students' Depression Levels

According to Topuzoglu et al. ( 42 ), 3% to 16.9% of individuals are affected by depression worldwide. There are fewer chances for general people to confront depression than university students ( 43 , 44 ). In Mirza et al.'s ( 45 ) study, 1/3 of students encounter stress and depression (a subjective mean occurrence of 30.6%) of all participant students, which suggests students have a 9% higher rate of experiencing depression than general people. Depression can destroy life; it greatly impacts living a balanced life. It can impact students' personal and social relationships, educational efficiency, quality of life, affecting their social and family relationships, academic productivity, and bodily operations ( 46 , 47 ). This declines their abilities, and they get demotivated to learn new things, resulting in unsatisfactory performances, and it can even result in university dropouts ( 48 ). Depression is a continuous substantial risk aspect for committing suicide for university students ( 49 ); thus, it is obliged to discover the factors that can give rise to students' depression.

Seventy-five percentage of students in China of an intermediate school are lucky enough to enroll in higher education. The more students pursue higher education, the more they upsurge for depression (in 2002, the depression rate was 5 to 10%, 2011 it rises 24 to 38%) ( 5 ). Generally, University students' age range is late teens to early twenties, i.e., 18–23 years. Abbas ( 50 ) named the era of university students as “post-adolescence. Risk factors for teenage depression have several and complicated problems of individual characteristics and family and educational life ( 51 ). Amongst the huge depression factors, relationship building with family demands a major chunk of attention and time since factors like parenting and family building play an important role in children's development ( 52 , 53 ). Halonen et al. ( 54 ) concluded that factors like family binding play a major role in development, preservation, and driving adolescent depression. Generally speaking, depressed teenagers tend to have a weaker family relationship with their parents than non-depressed teenagers.

There are two types of family risk factors, soft and hard. Hard factors are encountered in families with a weak family building structure, parents are little to no educated at all, and of course, the family status (economically). Several studies have proved that students of hard risk factors are more likely to encounter depression. Firstly, students from broken families have low confidence in every aspect of life, and they are weak at handling emotional breakdowns compared to students from complete and happy families ( 55 – 57 ). Secondly, the university students born in educated families, especially mothers (at least a college degree or higher degree), are less likely to confront depression than the university students born in families with little to no educated families. Secondly, children born with educated mothers or mothers who at least have a college degree tend to be less depressive than the children of less-educated mothers ( 58 ). However, Parker et al. and Mahmood et al. ( 59 , 60 ) stated a strong relationship between depression and mothers with low literacy levels.

On the other hand, Chang et al. ( 46 ) couldn't prove the authentication of this relationship in university students. Thirdly, university students who belong to lower class families tend to have more unstable mental states and are more likely to witness depression than middle or upper-class families ( 61 ). Jadoon et al. and Abbas et al. ( 62 , 63 ) said that there is no link between depression and economic status. Their irrelevance can be because medical students often come from educated and wealthy families and know their jobs are guaranteed as soon as they graduate. Therefore, the relationship between the hard family environment and depression can be known by targeting a huge audience, and there are several factors to consider while gauging this relationship.

The soft family environment is divided into clear factors (parenting style example, family guidelines, rules, the parent with academic knowledge, etc.) and implied factors (family norm, parent-child relationship, communication within the family, etc.). The soft factor is the key factor within the family that cannot be neglected while studying the teenagers' mental state or depression. Families make microsystems within the families, and families are the reason to build and maintain dysfunctional behavior by multiple functional procedures ( 64 ). Amongst the soft family environmental factors, consistency and struggles can be helpful while forecasting the mental health of teenagers. The youth of broken families, family conflict, weak family relationships, and marital issues, especially unhappy married life, are major factors for youth depression ( 65 ). Ruchkin et al. ( 66 ) stated that African Americans usually have weak family bonding, and their teenagers suffer from depression even when controlling for source bias. Whereas, few researchers have stated, family unity is the most serious factor while foreseeing teenagers' depression. Eaton noted that extreme broken family expressions might hurt emotionality and emotional regulation ( 67 , 68 ).

Social circle is also considered while studying depression in teenagers ( 69 – 71 ). The traditional Pakistani culture emphasizes collectivism and peace and focuses on blood relations and sensitive sentiments. Adolescents with this type of culture opt to get inspired by family, but students who live in hostels or share the room with other students lose this family inspiration. This transformation can be a big risk to encounter depression ( 72 ). Furthermore, in Pakistan securing employment is a big concern for university students. If they want a good job in the future, they have to score good grades and maintain GPA from the beginning. They have to face different challenges all at once, like aggressive educational competition, relationships with peers and family, and of course the biggest employment stress all alone. The only source for coping with these pressures is the family that can be helpful for fundings. If the students do not get ample support the chances are of extreme depression. The following hypothesis is suggested:

H2: Increased family stress level results in increased depression levels in students.

Students' Depression Levels and Students' Academic Performance

University students denote many people experiencing a crucial conversion from teenagers to adulthood: a time that is generally considered the most traumatic time in one's ( 73 ). This then gets accumulated with other challenges like changes in social circle and exams tension, which possibly puts students' mental health at stake. It has been concluded that one-third of students experience moderate to severe depression in their entire student life ( 74 ). This is the rate that can be increased compared to the general people ( 75 , 76 ). Students with limited social-class resources tend to be more helpless. Additionally, depressed students in attainable-focused environments (for instance, higher academic institutes) are likely to score lower grades with a sense of failure and more insufficient self-assurance because they consider themselves failures, find the world unfair, and have future uncertainties. Furthermore, students with low self-esteem are rigid to take on challenging assignments and projects, hence they are damaging their educational career ( 77 ).

Depression can be defined as a blend of physical, mental, bodily processes, and benightedness which can make themselves obvious by symptoms like, for example, poor sleep schedule, lack of concentration, ill thoughts, and state of remorse ( 78 , 79 ). But, even after such a huge number of depressions in students and the poor academic system, research has not explored the effect of depression on educational performance. A study has shown that the relationship between emotional stability and academic performance in university students and financial status directly results in poor exam performance. As the study further concluded, it was verified depression is an independent factor ( 80 ). Likewise, students suffering from depression score poor grades, but this relationship vanished if their depression got treated. Apart from confidence breaking, depression is a big failure for their academic life. Students with depression symptoms bunk more classes, assessments, and assignments. They drop courses if they find them challenging than non-depressed peers, and they are more likely to drop out of university completely ( 81 ). Students suffering from depression can become ruthless, ultimately affecting their educational performance and making them moody ( 82 ).

However, it has been stated that the association between anxiety and educational performance is even worse and ambiguous. At the same time, some comprehensive research has noted that the greater the anxiousness, the greater the student's performance. On the other hand, few types of research have shown results where there is no apparent relationship between anxiety and poorer academic grades ( 83 ). Ironically, few studies have proposed that a higher anxiety level may improve academic performance ( 84 , 85 ). Current research by Khan et al. ( 86 ) on the undergraduate medical students stated that even though the high occurrence of huge depression between the students, the students GPA is unharmed. Therefore, based on given differences in various research findings, this research is supposed to find a more specific and clear answer to the shared relationship between students' depression levels and academic performance. Based on the given arguments, the researcher formulates the following hypothesis:

H3: Students' depression level has a significant negative effect on their academic performance.

Methodology

Target population and sampling procedure.

The target audience of this study contains all male and female students studying in the public, private, or semi-government higher education institutions located in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. The researchers collected data from undergraduate and postgraduate students from the management sciences, engineering, and computer science departments. The sampling technique which has been used is the non-probability sampling technique. A questionnaire was given to the students, and they were requested to fill it and give their opinion independently. The questionnaire is based on five points Likert scale.

However, stress and depression are the most common issue among the students, which affects their learning outcomes adversely. A non-probability sampling technique gathered the data from February 2020 to May 2020. The total questionnaires distributed among students were 220, and 186 responses were useful. Of which 119 respondents were females, 66 males, and 1 preferred not to disclose. See Table 1 for detailed demographic information of respondents.

Respondent's demographic profile.


Total received responses	Public	36	19.35%
	Private	117	62.90%
	Semi-government	33	17.74%
Gender	Male	66	35.48%
	Female	119	63.97%
	Prefer not to disclose	1	0.54%
Age	Less than 20	29	15.59%
	21–30	146	78.49%
	31–40	11	5.91%
Qualification	Undergraduates	116	62.36%
	Postgraduates	70	37.63%
Degree Program	Management sciences	68	36.55%
	Engineering	8	4.30%
	Computer science	21	11.29%
	Others	89	47.84%
Semester	1 year	23	12.36%
	2 year	40	21.50%
	3 year	37	19.89%
	4 year	48	25.80%
	More than 4 year	38	20.43%

Measurement Scales

We have divided this instrument into two portions. In the first section, there is demographic information of respondents. The second section includes 14 items based on family stress, academic stress, students' depression levels, and students' academic performance. Academic and family stress were measured by 3 item scale for each construct, and students' depression level and academic performance were measured by 4 item scale for each separate construct. The five-point Likert scale is used to measure the items, in which one signifies strongly disagree (S.D), second signifies disagree (D.A), third signifies neither agree nor disagree (N), fourth signifies agree (A.G), and the fifth signifies strongly agree (S.A). The questionnaire has been taken from Gold Berg ( 87 ), which is modified and used in the given questionnaire.

Data Analysis and Results

The researchers used the SEM technique to determine the correlation between stress, depression, and academic performance. According to Prajogo and Cooper ( 88 ), it can remove biased effects triggered by the measurement faults and shape a hierarchy of latent constructs. SPSS v.23 and AMOS v.23 have been used to analyze the collected data. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test is used to test the competence of the sample. The value obtained is 0.868, which fulfills the Kaiser et al. ( 89 ), a minimum requirement of 0.6. The multicollinearity factor was analyzed through the variance inflation factor (VIF). It shows the value of 3.648 and meets the requirement of Hair et al. ( 90 ), which is < 4. It also indicates the absence of multicollinearity. According to Schwarz et al. ( 91 ), common method bias (CMB) is quite complex in quantitative studies. Harman's test of a single factor has been used to analyze CMB. The result obtained for the single factor is 38.63%. As stated by Podsakoff et al. ( 92 ), if any of the factors gives value < 50% of the total variance, it is adequate and does not influence the CMB. Therefore, we can say that there is no issue with CMB. Considering the above results are adequate among the measurement and structural model, we ensure that the data is valued enough to analyze the relation.

Assessment of the Measurement and Structural Model

The association between the manifest factors and their elements is examined by measuring model and verified by the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). CFA guarantees legitimacy and the unidimensional of the measurement model ( 93 ). Peterson ( 94 ) stated that the least required, i.e., 0.8 for the measurement model, fully complies with its Cronbach's alpha value, i.e., 0.802. Therefore, it can confidently be deduced that this measurement model holds satisfactory reliability. As for the psychological legitimacy can be analyzed through factor loading, where the ideal loading is above 0.6 for already established items ( 95 ). Also, according to the recommendation of Molina et al. ( 96 ), the minimum value of the average variance extracted (AVE) for all results is supposed to be >0.5. Table 2 gives detail of the variables and their quantity of things, factor loading, merged consistency, and AVE values.

Instrument reliability and validity.

			reliability
Academic stress	3	0.818–0.941	0.863	0.698
Family stress	3	0.852–0.897	0.778	0.721
Student's depression level	4	0.776–0.921	0.897	0.685
Student's academic performance	4	0.779–0.918	0.914	0.693

A discriminant validity test was performed to ensure the empirical difference of all constructs. For this, it was proposed by Fornell and Larcker ( 97 ) that the variance of the results is supposed to be greater than other constructs. The second indicator of discriminant validity is that the square root values of AVE have a greater correlation between the two indicators. Hair et al. ( 90 ) suggested that the correlation between the pair of predictor variables should not be higher than 0.9. Table 3 shows that discriminant validity recommended by Hair et al. ( 90 ) and Fornell and Larcker ( 97 ) was proved clearly that both conditions are fulfilled and indicates that the constructs have adequate discriminant validity.

Discriminant validity analysis.


Acd. Strs	0.835
Fam. Strs	0.543	0.849
Std. Dep. Lev	0.622	0.583	0.827
Std. Acd. Perf	0.623	0.629	0.579	0.832

Acd. Strs, Academic Stress; Fam. Strs, Family Stress; Std. Dep. Lev, Student's Depression Level; Std. Acd. Perf, Student's Academic Performance .

Kaynak ( 98 ) described seven indicators that ensure that the measurement model fits correctly. These indicators include standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR), root means a square error of approximation (RMSEA), comparative fit index (CFI), normative fit index (NFI), adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), the goodness of fit index (GFI) and chi-square to a degree of freedom (x 2 /DF). Tucker-Lewis's index (TLI) is also included to ensure the measurement and structural model's fitness. In the measurement model, the obtained result shows that the value of x 2 /DF is 1.898, which should be lower than 2 suggested by Byrne ( 99 ), and this value also meets the requirement of Bagozzi and Yi ( 100 ), i.e., <3. The RMSEA has the value 0.049, which fully meets the requirement of 0.08, as stated by Browne and Cudeck ( 101 ). Furthermore, the SRMR acquired value is 0.0596, which assemble with the required need of < 0.1 by Hu and Bentler ( 102 ). Moreover, according to Bentler and Bonett ( 103 ), McDonald and Marsh ( 104 ), and Bagozzi and Yi ( 100 ), the ideal value is 0.9, and the values obtained from NFI, GFI, AGFI, CFI, and TLI are above the ideal value.

Afterward, the structural model was analyzed and achieved the findings, which give the value of x 2 /DF 1.986. According to Browne and Cudeck ( 101 ), the RMSEA value should not be greater than 0.08, and the obtained value of RMSEA is 0.052, which meets the requirement perfectly. The minimum requirement of Hu and Bentler ( 102 ) should be <0.1, for the structural model fully complies with the SRMR value 0.0616. According to a recommendation of McDonald and Marsh ( 104 ) and Bagozzi and Yi ( 100 ), the ideal value must be up to 0.9, and Table 4 also shows that the values of NFI, GFI, AGFI, CFI, and TLI, which are above than the ideal value and meets the requirement. The above results show that both the measurement and structural models are ideally satisfied with the requirements and the collected data fits correctly.

Analysis of measurement and structural model.


Recommended value	≤ 3	≥0.9	≥0.9	≥0.9	≥0.9	≥0.9	≤0.08	≤0.08
Measurement model	1.898	0.9	0.91	0.914	0.91	0.91	0.049	0.0596
Structural model	1.986	0.91	0.91	0.918	0.92	0.92	0.052	0.0616

Testing of Hypotheses

The SEM technique is used to examine the hypotheses. Each structural parameter goes along with the hypothesis. The academic stress (Acd. Strs) with the value β = 0.293 while the p -value is 0.003. These outcomes show a significant positive relationship between academic stress (Acd. Strs) and students' depression levels (Std. Dep. Lev). With the β = 0.358 and p = 0.001 values, the data analysis discloses that the family stress (Fam. Strs) has a significant positive effect on the students' depression level (Std. Dep. Lev). However, the student's depression level (Std. Dep. Lev) also has a significant negative effect on their academic performance (Std. Acd. Perf) with the values of β = −0.319 and p = 0.001. Therefore, the results supported the following hypotheses H 1 , H 2 , and H 3 . The sub-hypotheses analysis shows that the results are statistically significant and accepted. In Table 5 , the details of the sub-hypotheses and the principals are explained precisely. Please see Table 6 to review items with their mean and standard deviation values. Moreover, Figure 2 represents the structural model.

Examining the hypotheses.

				-value
H	Acd. Strs → Std. Dev. Lev	0.201	2.021	0.039	Accepted
H	Fam. Strs → Std. Dep. Lev	0.358	3.997	0.001	Accepted
H	Std. Dep. Lev → Std. Acd. Perf	−0.319	−3.402	0.001	Accepted

Description of items, mean, and standard deviation.


Mental health has a valuable impact on students' academic learning.	3.26	1.752
Academic pressure leads to stress in students' life.	3.25	1.530
I have difficulty in understanding basic concepts.	2.95	1.272
I have to revise the things again and again to develop an understanding.	3.14	1.352
I have lost interest in academic aspects that used to be important for me.	2.83	1.351
Family issues leads to stress in students' life.	3.37	1.504
Because of family issues I cannot concentrate on my studies.	3.19	1.468
I am not able to sleep properly because of family issues.	3.02	1.424
Depression negatively affects a student's motivation to learn.	3.37	1.405
Unfair treatment by teachers causes academic depression in students.	3.12	1.620
Depression has negatively affected my learning capabilities.	2.99	1.280
Depression has negatively affected my academic grades.	3.19	1.201
Sometimes I don't see value in my life. I feel depressed in the class.	2.96 2.91	1.398 1.310

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Structural model.

Discussion and Conclusion

These findings add to our knowledge of how teenage depression is predicted by academic and familial stress, leading to poor academic performance, and they have practical implications for preventative and intervention programs to safeguard adolescents' mental health in the school context. The outcomes imply that extended academic stress positively impacts students' depression levels with a β of 0.293 and a p -value sof 0.003. However, according to Wang et al. ( 5 ), a higher level of academic stress is linked to a larger level of school burnout, which leads to a higher degree of depression. Satinsky et al. ( 105 ) also claimed that university officials and mental health specialists have expressed worry about depression and anxiety among Ph.D. students, and that his research indicated that depression and anxiety are quite common among Ph.D. students. Deb et al. ( 106 ) found the same results and concluded that depression, anxiety, behavioral difficulties, irritability, and other issues are common among students who are under a lot of academic stress. Similarly, Kokou-Kpolou et al. ( 107 ) revealed that depressive symptoms are common among university students in France. They also demonstrate that socioeconomic and demographic characteristics have a role.

However, Wang et al. ( 5 ) asserted that a higher level of academic stress is associated with a higher level of school burnout, which in return, leads to a higher level of depression. Furthermore, Satinsky et al. ( 105 ) also reported that university administrators and mental health clinicians have raised concerns about depression and anxiety and concluded in his research that depression and anxiety are highly prevalent among Ph.D. students. Deb et al. ( 106 ) also reported the same results and concluded that Depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, irritability, etc. are few of the many problems reported in students with high academic stress. Similary, Kokou-Kpolou et al. ( 107 ) confirmed that university students in France have a high prevalence of depressive symptoms. They also confirm that socio-demographic factors and perceived stress play a predictive role in depressive symptoms among university students. As a result, academic stress has spread across all countries, civilizations, and ethnic groups. Academic stress continues to be a serious problem impacting a student's mental health and well-being, according to the findings of this study.

With the β= 0.358 and p = 0.001 values, the data analysis discloses that the family stress (Fam. Strs) has a significant positive effect on the students' depression level (Std. Dep. Lev). Aleksic ( 108 ) observed similar findings and concluded that many and complicated concerns of personal traits, as well as both home and school contexts, are risk factors for teenage depression. Similarly, Wang et al. ( 109 ) indicated that, among the possible risk factors for depression, family relationships need special consideration since elements like parenting styles and family dynamics influence how children grow. Family variables influence the onset, maintenance, and course of juvenile depression, according to another study ( 110 ). Depressed adolescents are more likely than normal teenagers to have bad family and parent–child connections.

Conversely, students' depression level has a significantly negative impact on their academic performance with β and p -values of −0.319 and 0.001. According ( 111 ), anxiety and melancholy have a negative influence on a student's academic performance. Adolescents and young adults suffer from depression, which is a common and dangerous mental illness. It's linked to an increase in family issues, school failure, especially among teenagers, suicide, drug addiction, and absenteeism. While the transition to adulthood is a high-risk period for depression in general ( 5 ), young people starting college may face extra social and intellectual challenges that increase their risk of melancholy, anxiety, and stress ( 112 ). Students' high rates of depression, anxiety, and stress have serious consequences. Not only may psychological morbidity have a negative impact on a student's academic performance and quality of life, but it may also disturb family and institutional life ( 107 ). Therefore, long-term untreated depression, anxiety, or stress can have a negative influence on people's ability to operate and produce, posing a public health risk ( 113 ).

Theoretical Implications

The current study makes various contributions to the existing literature on servant leadership. Firstly, it enriches the limited literature on the role of family and academic stress and their impact on students' depression levels. Although, a few studies have investigated stress and depression and its impact on Students' academic performance ( 14 , 114 ), however, their background i.e., family and institutions are largely ignored.

Secondly, it explains how the depression level impacts students' academic learning, specifically in the Asian developing countries region. Though a substantial body of empirical research has been produced in the last decade on the relationship between students' depression levels and its impact on their academic achievements, however, the studies conducted in the Pakistani context are scarce ( 111 , 115 ). Thus, this study adds further evidence to prior studies conducted in different cultural contexts and validates the assumption that family and academic stress are key sources depression and anxiety among students which can lead toward their low academic grades and their overall performance.

This argument is in line with our proposed theory in the current research i.e., cognitive appraisal theory which was presented in 1966 by psychologist Richard Lazarus. Lazarus's theory is called the appraisal theory of stress, or the transactional theory of stress because the way a person appraises the situation affects how they feel about it and consequently it's going to affect his overall quality of life. In line with the theory, it suggests that events are not good or bad, but the way we think about them is positive or negative, and therefore has an impact on our stress levels.

Practical Implications

According to the findings of this study, high levels of depressive symptoms among college students should be brought to the attention of relevant departments. To prevent college student depression, relevant departments should improve the study and life environment for students, try to reduce the generation of negative life events, provide adequate social support for students, and improve their cognitive and coping capacities to improve their mental qualities.

Stress and depression, on the other hand, may be managed with good therapy, teacher direction, and family support. The outcomes of this study provide an opportunity for academic institutions to address students' psychological well-being and requirements. Emotional well-being support services for students at Pakistan's higher education institutions are lacking in many of these institutions, which place a low priority on the psychological requirements of these students. As a result, initiatives that consistently monitor and enhance kids' mental health are critical. Furthermore, stress-reduction treatments such as biofeedback, yoga, life-skills training, mindfulness meditation, and psychotherapy have been demonstrated to be useful among students. Professionals in the sector would be able to adapt interventions for pupils by understanding the sources from many spheres.

Counseling clinics should be established at colleges to teach students about stress and sadness. Counselors should instill in pupils the importance of positive conduct and decision-making. The administration of the school should work to create a good and safe atmosphere. Furthermore, teachers should assume responsibility for assisting and guiding sad pupils, since this will aid in their learning and performance. Support from family members might also help you get through difficult times.

Furthermore, these findings support the importance of the home environment as a source of depression risk factors among university students, implying that family-based treatments and improvements are critical in reducing depression among university students.

Limitations and Future Research Implications

The current study has a few limitations. The researcher gathered data from the higher education level of university students studying in Islamabad and Rawalpindi institutions. In the future, researchers are required to widen their region and gather information from other cities of Pakistan, for instance, Lahore, Karachi, etc. Another weakness of the study is that it is cross-sectional in nature. We need to do longitudinal research in the future to authoritatively assert the cause-and-effect link between academic and familial stress and their effects on students' academic performance since cross-sectional studies cannot establish significant cause and effect relationships. Finally, the study's relatively small sample size is a significant weakness. Due to time and budget constraints, it appears that the capacity to perform in-depth research of all firms in Pakistan's pharmaceutical business has been limited. Even though the findings are substantial and meaningful, the small sample size is predicted to limit generalizability and statistical power. This problem can be properly solved by increasing the size of the sample by the researchers, in future researches.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing and editing of the original draft, and read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This work was funded by the 2020 Heilongjiang Province Philosophy and Social Science Research Planning Project on Civic and Political Science in Universities (Grant No. 20SZB01). This work is supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy Sciences as part of the research project VEGA 1/0797/20: Quantification of Environmental Burden Impacts of the Slovak Regions on Health, Social and Economic System of the Slovak Republic.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank all persons who directly or indirectly participated in the completion of this manuscript.

Western Asia

Family Problems Experienced by Students of the University of Jordan

January 2016
European Scientific Journal 12(13):145- 156
12(13):145- 156

University of Jordan
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September 12, 2024

Introducing OpenAI o1-preview

A new series of reasoning models for solving hard problems. Available starting 9.12

We've developed a new series of AI models designed to spend more time thinking before they respond. They can reason through complex tasks and solve harder problems than previous models in science, coding, and math. Today, we are releasing the first of this series in ChatGPT and our API. This is a preview and we expect regular updates and improvements. Alongside this release, we’re also including evaluations for the next update, currently in development.

How it works

We trained these models to spend more time thinking through problems before they respond, much like a person would. Through training, they learn to refine their thinking process, try different strategies, and recognize their mistakes.

In our tests, the next model update performs similarly to PhD students on challenging benchmark tasks in physics, chemistry, and biology. We also found that it excels in math and coding. In a qualifying exam for the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO), GPT-4o correctly solved only 13% of problems, while the reasoning model scored 83%. Their coding abilities were evaluated in contests and reached the 89th percentile in Codeforces competitions. You can read more about this in our technical research post .

As an early model, it doesn't yet have many of the features that make ChatGPT useful, like browsing the web for information and uploading files and images. For many common cases GPT-4o will be more capable in the near term.

But for complex reasoning tasks this is a significant advancement and represents a new level of AI capability. Given this, we are resetting the counter back to 1 and naming this series OpenAI o1.

As part of developing these new models, we have come up with a new safety training approach that harnesses their reasoning capabilities to make them adhere to safety and alignment guidelines. By being able to reason about our safety rules in context, it can apply them more effectively.

One way we measure safety is by testing how well our model continues to follow its safety rules if a user tries to bypass them (known as "jailbreaking"). On one of our hardest jailbreaking tests, GPT-4o scored 22 (on a scale of 0-100) while our o1-preview model scored 84. You can read more about this in the system card and our research post .

To match the new capabilities of these models, we’ve bolstered our safety work, internal governance, and federal government collaboration. This includes rigorous testing and evaluations using our Preparedness Framework (opens in a new window) , best-in-class red teaming, and board-level review processes, including by our Safety & Security Committee. To advance our commitment to AI safety, we recently formalized agreements with the U.S. and U.K. AI Safety Institutes. We've begun operationalizing these agreements, including granting the institutes early access to a research version of this model. This was an important first step in our partnership, helping to establish a process for research, evaluation, and testing of future models prior to and following their public release.

Whom it’s for

These enhanced reasoning capabilities may be particularly useful if you’re tackling complex problems in science, coding, math, and similar fields. For example, o1 can be used by healthcare researchers to annotate cell sequencing data, by physicists to generate complicated mathematical formulas needed for quantum optics, and by developers in all fields to build and execute multi-step workflows.

OpenAI o1-mini

The o1 series excels at accurately generating and debugging complex code. To offer a more efficient solution for developers, we’re also releasing OpenAI o1-mini , a faster, cheaper reasoning model that is particularly effective at coding. As a smaller model, o1-mini is 80% cheaper than o1-preview, making it a powerful, cost-effective model for applications that require reasoning but not broad world knowledge.

How to use OpenAI o1

ChatGPT Plus and Team users will be able to access o1 models in ChatGPT starting today. Both o1-preview and o1-mini can be selected manually in the model picker, and at launch, weekly rate limits will be 30 messages for o1-preview and 50 for o1-mini. We are working to increase those rates and enable ChatGPT to automatically choose the right model for a given prompt.

An image of the new ChatGPT dropdown that displays the new "o1-preview" model option over a bright yellow and blue abstract background

ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu users will get access to both models beginning next week. Developers who qualify for API usage tier 5 (opens in a new window) can start prototyping with both models in the API today with a rate limit of 20 RPM. We’re working to increase these limits after additional testing. The API for these models currently doesn't include function calling, streaming, support for system messages, and other features. To get started, check out the API documentation (opens in a new window) .

We also are planning to bring o1-mini access to all ChatGPT Free users .

What’s next

This is an early preview of these reasoning models in ChatGPT and the API. In addition to model updates, we expect to add browsing, file and image uploading, and other features to make them more useful to everyone.

We also plan to continue developing and releasing models in our GPT series, in addition to the new OpenAI o1 series.

Try it in ChatGPT Plus (opens in a new window)
Try it in the API (opens in a new window)

IMAGES

Family issues becoming social problems Free Essay Example
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(PDF) Family Problems Experienced by Students of the University of Jordan
Problems with the family
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The quality of family relationships, including social support (e.g., providing love, advice, and care) and strain (e.g., arguments, being critical, making too many demands), can influence well-being through psychosocial, behavioral, and physiological pathways. Stressors and social support are core components of stress process theory (Pearlin ...
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Introduction. The recent decades of family change—including the increases in divorce and separation rates, single parenthood, cohabitation, and step family formation—led to an explosion in popular and academic interest in the consequences of family dynamics for children's well-being and life chances (cf. Amato 2000, 2010; Amato and James 2010; Ribar 2004; Sweeney 2010; McLanahan et al ...
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The relationship between family variables and family social problems during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Limitations

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Supporting information

Acknowledgments

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A growing share of U.S. husbands and wives are roughly the same age

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Family and Academic Stress and Their Impact on Students' Depression Level and Academic Performance

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