PARENT-ADOLESCENT RELATIONSHIPS DURING COVID-19 1 Development of Parent-Adolescent Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Stress and Coping Monika H. Donker*, Stefanos Mastrotheodoros*, & Susan Branje Department of Youth and Family, Utrecht University * Shared first authorship Corresponding author: Monika H. Donker, [email protected] © 2021, American Psychological Association. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the final, authoritative version of the article. Please do not copy or cite without authors' permission. The final article will be available, upon publication, via its DOI: 10.1037/dev0001212 Author note: The code for the tests of longitudinal measurement invariance, the construction of the composite scores, and the LCS models is available in the Open Science Framework Acknowledgement: This research was supported by a grant of the European Research Council (ERC-2017-CoG 773023 INTRANSITION). PARENT-ADOLESCENT RELATIONSHIPS DURING COVID-19 2 Abstract The extensive measures to prevent spread of COVID-19 have had a major impact on families’ daily lives. Changes in family routines and experiences of COVID-19-related stress might negatively impact the quality of parenting and the parent-adolescent relationship. However, using active coping strategies might be associated with limited negative or even positive changes in the parent-adolescent relationship. This longitudinal, multi-informant, and pre-registered study used data of 240 mostly Dutch parents (85% mothers; Mage 44.2 years old) and adolescents (50% girls; Mage 11.4 years) from diverse SES backgrounds. Using Latent Change Score models, we examined how parent-reported parenting (i.e., positive parenting and discipline practices) and adolescent-reported relationship quality (i.e., support and negative interaction) changed from pre-COVID-19 (Fall 2019) to the COVID-19 period (Spring 2020). Moreover, we investigated whether parents’ and adolescents’ level of COVID-19-related stress was associated with the change in relationships, and whether active coping moderated the association between stress and changes in relationships. Results showed average decreases in support, positive parenting, and negative interactions between parents and adolescents. COVID-19-related stress was not a direct predictor of relationship changes and there was little evidence of moderating effects. Only adolescents’ use of active coping strategies moderated the effect of stress on positive parenting. For high active coping adolescents, the link between stress and change in positive parenting was negative, whereas for low active coping adolescents this link was positive. The findings suggest that parent-adolescent relationships during a pandemic need attention, especially for adolescents with high stress levels and using active coping strategies. Keywords: COVID-19, parenting, parent-adolescent relationships, stress, coping PARENT-ADOLESCENT RELATIONSHIPS DURING COVID-19 3 Development of Parent-Adolescent Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Stress and Coping The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the extensive measures to prevent a further spread of the virus have had a major impact on the daily life of all citizens (Qiu et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020). Especially families with (adolescent) children might have been affected by the restrictive measures (Brown et al., 2020; Keijsers & Bülow, 2020), because even in ‘normal’ times, adolescence is a turbulent period. Although perceived support, guidance, and structure is still very important for healthy development of adolescents (Branje et al., 2002), relationships between adolescents and parents become more egalitarian, and this process is often accompanied by an increase in conflicts (Branje et al., 2012; Laursen & Collins, 2009) and a decrease in support during early adolescence (De Goede et al., 2009; Mastrotheodoros et al., 2019). Also, parents tend to gradually decrease their control to accommodate the increasing autonomy of their children (Keijsers et al., 2009). Given that early adolescence is a period with important changes in these three key aspects of the parent-child relationship, examining the role of COVID-19 on these aspects is crucial. The current study examined changes in parenting and parent-child relationship quality from pre-COVID-19 to the COVID-19-period. The Netherlands was struck particularly hard by the pandemic, with wor