Editorial Comments

Our third issue of Volume 54 includes a collection of work examining various forms of family resources and their impact on stress, as well as demographic and cultural shifts occurring in the African context. We are pleased to see Filipino, Spanish, Canadian, North and South African samples/contexts represented in this work. We appreciate the authors' work in these areas as well reviewers' insight and assistance on these works though the feedback process.

Family Resources and Their Impact on Stress During COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic caused negative effects that were heightened for women (see for example Burki, 2020), our first article by Michelle B. Ayuro and Rosanne M. Jocson, Family Resources and Child Age Moderate the Association Between Work Stress and Parenting Stress Among Mothers Working from Home, examines a convenience sample of Filipino mothers who transitioned to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic to explore: 1) the link between work related stress and parenting stress and 2) the effect of family-level protective factors (here family resources and child age) as moderators of this link. The manuscript is informed by ecological theory and risk and resilience frameworks.

Results describe factors that contribute to varying levels of parenting stress, types of work stress and their effects on parenting stress, as well as the impact of family resources and child age on the link between work stress and parenting stress. Findings are consistent with work-family spillover literature (e.g., see Malinen at al., 2017) and build on this literature by examining the use of family resources as a protective factor in a not often studied sample of Filipino working mothers.

Our second manuscript by Rita Cavallotti, Laia Pi Ferrer and Rejina Selvam, Family Social Capital's Impact on the Family Stress Model: A Cross-Sectional Spanish Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic, also examines family stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here the authors examine the application of the family stress model to a cross-sectional sample of Spanish parents (mother or father as participant) and additionally examine the impact of family social capital as a protective factor for relationship quality under conditions of economic stress. The proposed theoretical model was assessed via structural equation modelling.

Results show direct effects linking economic hardship to economic pressure, which in turn is associated with emotional and psychological distress, subsequently affecting marital quality. Results also reveal that family social capital directly affects relationship quality and parent-child interactions. Indirect and mediating effects are also examined—we urge you to review the manuscript for details. This study demonstrates the positive effects of family social capital on the ability to deal with family stressors such as economic pressure.

Our third article written by Áine M. Humble and Jessie-Lee D. McIsaac, Mothers, Household Bubbles, and Social Support During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic, explores social support experiences on parenting stress of Canadian mothers living in Nova Scotia who participated in household bubbles during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to decrease the risk of contagion. Immediate family bubbles was a health policy implemented by the Nova Scotian government (see Long et al., 2020). Findings are based on qualitative interview data with mothers who had at least one child under age 12. The study was informed by stress and resilience, bioecological and social capital theories and used content analysis consisting of three coding strategies: topic coding, descriptive coding, and analytical coding. Themes reflected in the results include: 1) decisions around who to form bubbles with, 2) how the bubbles were helpful and 3) missing support from distant family members.

Demographic Change and Family Dynamics

Our fourth manuscript, by Ahmed Aref, Angela Fallentine, and Sarah Zahran, The State of Urbanization, Demographic Changes and Family Dynamics in Africa, examines population dynamics and demographic changes in North African societies. The manuscript is informed by demographic transition theory. The goal of the paper is to demonstrate potential opportunities and policy recommendations to increase the well-being of families in urban areas in Africa (such as increasing availability of affordable housing). The manuscript provides an overview of urbanization trends in Africa, as well as an overview...