Highlights During a sudden and unprecedented event, such as the current pandemic, healthcare workers may be inadequately prepared and supported to cope with stressors and this negatively affected working environment. For healthcare professionals, a positive attitude towards the stressful situation was the main protective factor, while female gender, seeking social support, avoidance strategies and working with COVIDCOVID-19 patients were risk factors. It is important to investigate the response of healthcare professionals to the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of perceived stress and coping strategies, in order to implement targeted prevention and intervention programs.

Emergency situations have been associated with negative psychological adjustment outcomes in healthcare professionals, although studies on the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic amongst Italian health workers are limited. The main aim of this study was to investigate the psychological adjustment of healthcare professionals during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, evaluating differences according to working or not with patients affected by COVID-19 and in areas with a more severe spread of this pandemic. Healthcare professionals’ attitudes toward psychological support were analyzed. The levels of anxiety, depression, psychological stress, and professional quality of life (compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue) and attitudes toward psychological support were measured among 627 Italian healthcare workers (mean age = 40.55 years; SD = 11.49; range: 27–72). Significantly higher levels of stress, burnout, secondary trauma, anxiety, and depression were observed among professionals working with COVID-19 patients. Higher levels of stress and burnout and lower levels of compassion satisfaction were detected in professionals working in areas with higher rates of contagion. No interaction effects were found between working (or not) with patients affected by COVID-19 and working (or not) in areas with a more severe diffusion of this pandemic. Finally, in the group of professionals who worked with COVID-19 patients, the percentage of professionals who thought to ask for psychological support was twice that of the group that did not work with COVID-19 patients. The overall findings indicate that the mental health of frontline healthcare workers requires further consideration and that targeted prevention and intervention programs are necessary.

The present study, carried out during the first peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, aimed at investigating the mental health of mothers and children during the nationwide lockdown. More specifically, the study investigated children’s depression and mothers’ individual distress and parenting stress, in comparison with normative samples. The mediating effect of mothers’ parenting stress on the relationship between mothers’ individual distress and children’s depression was also explored. Finally, the study analyzed whether children’s biological sex and age moderated the structural paths of the proposed model. A sample of 206 Italian mothers and their children completed an online survey. Mothers were administered self-report questionnaires investigating individual distress and parenting stress; children completed a standardized measure of depression. Mothers’ individual distress and parenting stress and children’s depression were higher than those recorded for the normative samples. Mothers’ parenting stress was found to mediate the association between mothers’ individual distress and children’s depression. With respect to children, neither biological sex nor age emerged as significant moderators of this association, highlighting that the proposed model was robust and invariant. During the current and future pandemics, public health services should support parents—and particularly mothers—in reducing individual distress and parenting stress, as these are associated with children’s depression.