Changes in Mother’s Alcohol Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic Affects Use of Aggressive Discipline

Objectives: Parents were uniquely at risk of increased alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased stress. Having children (younger than 18) at home during COVID-19 was associated with using drinking to cope, more heavy drinking episodes and number of drinks. Women reported drinking more drinks per day and binge drinking in the early stages of the pandemic. While stress and alcohol use are both related to physical abuse, the confluence of these factors led to more use of aggressive discipline during COVID-19. However, less is known about how the changing nature of alcohol use by mothers has affected their continued use of aggressive discipline.

Methods: In 2020, during the early stages of the stay-at-home orders in Ohio, we recruited a convenience sample of mothers via Facebook, Craigslist, and word of mouth. We had an 86.7% retention rate from Wave 1 to Wave 3. Participants took a 45 minute on-line survey for three consecutive years beginning in April-May 2020 and 1 and 2 years later. We created model-based estimates of dimensions of drinking patterns including drinking frequency (i.e., number of days consumed one alcoholic drink), average drinks per day, and overall volume of alcohol consumed. We measured aggressive discipline using the corporal punishment and psychological aggression subscales for the dimensions of discipline scale. We created a binary variable that identifies when parents reported using any aggressive discipline measures weekly.

Results: Across the three waves we saw a decreasing frequency of aggressive discipline with 34% of parents in W1 using this technique compared to 27.3% of parents in W3. Total volume of alcohol consumed was related to higher odds of using aggressive discipline weekly. When we disaggregate total volume to include number of drinks per occasion and frequency of drinking, only the later is significant. Mothers with higher perceived stress, higher levels of social isolation and more companionship support (e.g., people to socialize with) are more likely to use aggressive discipline weekly. In the model with total volume. Parents of older children were less likely to report using aggressive discipline weekly.

Conclusions: As people resumed to a “new” normal of activities, alcohol use continues to be a risk for risk factor. Further, with increased drinking volume, we need to create messaging how to continue to keep children safe during periods when drinking, particularly risky drinking, occurs. This harm reduction approach may include arranging for babysitters during and the morning after when drinking occurred, identifying social support members who provide more tangible and emotional support (compared to companionship support), or encouraging mothers to drink non-alcoholic beer, wine, or spirits.