Understanding the Impact of Family Conflict on Mental Health In South Korea during COVID-19: Risk and Protective Factors

Background and Purpose

Social distancing measures, including stay-at-home orders and lockdowns, were strictly enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea (hereafter Korea) (Kim et al., 2023). These measures, along with caregiving burden, financial insecurity, and health challenges, increased family conflict across age and gender groups (Yoon & Choi, 2025). Family conflict has been associated with greater loneliness and anxiety (Yoon & Mahapatra, 2024). However, resilience has been identified as a protective factor that may mitigate adverse mental health outcomes following stressful events, even amid natural disasters (Yoon & Choi, 2022). Given Koreans’ collectivist values, family conflict during the pandemic may have had stronger implications for mental health (Yoon & Choi, 2022, 2025). Nevertheless, limited research has simultaneously examined family conflict, anxiety, loneliness, and resilience among adults in Korea during the pandemic. Therefore, this study investigated the association between family conflict and anxiety, focusing on the mediating roles of loneliness and resilience.

Methods

This study employed data from 1,000 adults aged 20-82 collected in February 2021 in Korea as part of the second wave of an international study on family well-being and COVID-19 (Mohanty et al., 2022). An independent variable, family conflict (α = .801) was measured using five items from the Brief Family Relationship Scale (Fok et al., 2014). The dependent variable, anxiety (α = .930) was assessed using the seven-items from GAD-7 (Spitzer et al., 2006). Intervening variables, loneliness (α = .881) was measured using three items (Hughes et al. 2004), and resilience (α = .841) was assessed using six items from the Brief Resilience Scale, with three negatively worded items reverse-coded (Smith et al., 2008). Covariates included income, self-rated health, gender, marital status, and age. Missing data were handled using maximum likelihood estimation (Enders, 2022). Serial mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS Macro (model 6) (Hayes, 2022). Bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples was used to estimate 95% confidence intervals.

Results

As for direct effects, family conflict was positively associated with loneliness (b=.2539, p=.000) and negatively associated with resilience, controlling for loneliness (b=. -2819, p=.000). Loneliness was negatively associated with resilience (b=. -8319, p=.000). Family conflict was positively associated with anxiety, controlling for loneliness and resilience (b=.3952, p=.000). Loneliness was positively associated with anxiety (b=.8244, p=.000), whereas resilience was negatively associated with anxiety (b=. -3008, p=.000). Significant indirect effects were found. Family conflict was associated with anxiety through loneliness (b=.2093, 95% CI [.1479, 2730]) and through resilience (b=.0848, 95% CI [.0504, 1237]). Additionally, family conflict was associated with anxiety through loneliness and resilience serially (b=.0635, 95% CI [.0429, .0886]).

Conclusions and Implications

Family conflict during the pandemic increased loneliness and anxiety among adults in Korea. Resilience functioned as both a direct and indirect protective factor, reducing the negative impact of family conflict on anxiety. These findings highlight the need for programs and services that strengthen family relationships, promote effective communication, enhance social support, and foster resilience among adults and their family members during challenging times.