Transactional associations of health-related worries among Asian families: Evidence from six-wave longitudinal data during COVID-19.

During public health crises, family members often experience heightened health-related worry. However, little is known about how the transactional processes of such worry operate within family systems involving mother, father, and their child. To address this gap, we conducted a six-wave longitudinal survey of 303 families in China. Each month, mothers (Mage = 33.35 years) and fathers (Mage = 34.97 years) of children (Mage = 3.98 years, age range 2-7 years, 55.6% male) reported their own and their perceptions of their child's COVID-19-related health worries (e.g., infection concerns). Using a Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model, we examined both between- and within-family associations. Results revealed that more worried family members generally had other family members who were also more worried (between-family associations). Within families, increases in one member's worry from their usual level correlated with higher than usual worries in other members at the same time (within-family covariations). Prospectively, the data revealed that mothers becoming more worried than usual was a predictor of their children becoming more worried than usual in the following month and vice versa (reciprocal mother-child associations). Additionally, mothers becoming more worried than usual was a predictor of their partners becoming more worried than usual in the following month but not the reverse (mother-to-father unidirectional associations). These findings revealed the transactional processes of health-related worry at both the within- and between-family levels. The findings pertaining to health-related worry also underscored the reciprocal associations in mother-child relationships over time and the mother's role in the interparental subsystem. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).