The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impaired young children's mental health, underscoring the need for research on protective factors. Using a cross-sectional design, we examined whether parental working memory (WM) buffered relations between COVID-19 hardships (home-life, economic, and quarantine) and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Female parents (N = 339; 83.19% White/Caucasian, 8.85% Black/African American, 3.54% Asian, 1.47% Native American, and 2.36% mixed race; 7.67% Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity) of children 2–5-years-old reported COVID-19 hardships and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms and completed a backward digit span task to measure WM. All types of COVID-19 hardships were positively related to child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Higher parental WM weakened positive relations between all types of hardships and child internalizing symptoms, and between home-life and economic hardships and externalizing symptoms. Results suggest that parental WM, a malleable target for intervention, may buffer associations between the detrimental effects of COVID-19 and young children's mental health.

冠状病毒（COVID-19）大流行损害了幼儿的心理健康，凸显了研究保护因素的必要性。我们采用横断面设计，研究了父母工作记忆 (WM) 是否缓冲了 COVID-19 困难（家庭生活、经济和隔离）与儿童内化和外化症状之间的关系。 2-5 岁儿童的女性父母（N = 339；83.19% 白人/高加索人，8.85% 黑人/非裔美国人，3.54% 亚洲人，1.47% 美洲原住民，2.36% 混血儿；7.67% 西班牙裔/拉丁裔） old 报告了 COVID-19 的困难和儿童内化和外化症状，并完成了向后数字跨度任务来测量 WM。所有类型的 COVID-19 困难都与儿童的内化和外化症状呈正相关。较高的父母WM削弱了各种困难与儿童内化症状之间的正相关关系，以及家庭生活和经济困难与外化症状之间的正相关关系。结果表明，父母的 WM 作为一个可塑的干预目标，可能会缓冲 COVID-19 的有害影响与幼儿心理健康之间的关联。