Maternal Mental Health and Child Adjustment Problems in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Families Experiencing Economic Disadvantage

Abstract

Parents living in low-income contexts shouldered disproportionate hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic with consequences to maternal mental health and child adjustment. The current study uses a sample of first-time mothers ( N = 147) of young toddlers, all living in low-income contexts, to examine the roles of pre-pandemic and COVID-19-specific risk and individual resilience factors in the prediction of changes to maternal mental health coinciding with the onset of the pandemic. Maternal mental health symptoms, in turn, were examined as predictors of child adjustment problems across 6 months of the pandemic and as a potential mechanism conferring pandemic risks to children. While pre-pandemic cumulative contextual risk (i.e., low income, single parent status, adolescent parent status, financial instability) did not predict changes in maternal mental health from prior to during the pandemic, COVID-19-specific health risks predicted changes in maternal mental health from before the pandemic, as well as across 6 months of the pandemic. Regarding individual resilience factors to changes in maternal mental health, pre-pandemic self-compassion predicted better maternal mental health during the pandemic, as did COVID-19-specific appraisal and coping strategies. In turn, maternal mental health predicted children’s early pandemic levels of adjustment problems and changes in adjustment problems across 6 months of the pandemic, with maternal mental health serving an indirect pathway of COVID-19-specific health risks to children’s adjustment. The findings highlight pathways of risk and resilience during a global health crisis and point to targets for interventions in community level crises to promote maternal and child mental health.

Maternal mental health mediates the effects of pandemic‐related stressors on adolescent psychopathology during COVID‐19

“…With regard to the COVID‐19 pandemic, there is consistent evidence of elevated mental health problems among parents (e.g., Cameron et al., 2020 ; Racine, Eirich, et al., 2021 ), and that worsening parental mental health from prior to the pandemic to several months into it was shown to co‐occur with worsening behavioral health in children (Patrick et al., 2020 ), highlighting the importance of examining concurrent and prospective relations of symptoms across parents and children. For example, changes in maternal mental health during the pandemic predicted changes in young children’s adjustment (Thompson et al., 2022 ). Further, financial deprivation and prior mental health problems in both parents and children, along with pandemic‐related stressors, were associated with poorer parent and child functioning during the pandemic (Bryson et al., 2021 ; Westrupp et al., 2021 ).…”

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's mental health: A systematic review

“…Among parents, mothers aged between 18 and 65 years were the main participants. Mothers were even the sole participants in seven included studies ( 43 , 44 , 47 , 52 , 53 , 57 , 65 ). Compared with mothers, the fathers' participation in research studies was low, so fathers were one of the respondents in ten included studies only [e.g., ( 32 , 39 , 45 , 46 , 48 , 49 , 51 , 60 – 62 , 64 )].…”

“…Identifying the risk and protective factors is essential to understand why an unprecedented situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic is detrimental to children's mental health ( 40 , 53 , 65 ). Based on the 30 included studies, we identified the following risk factors:…”

“…Of the 30 included studies, thirteen studies examined the association between perceived parental stress and children's emotional and behavioral problems during the pandemic ( 42 , 46 , 49 , 51 , 53 , 54 , 57 , 61 – 66 ). Parents experienced mounting pandemic-related stress and COVID-19 contextual hardship ( 65 ), including an increase in childcare responsibilities, greater home-schooling demands and worries about the balance between increased caring responsibilities and work, family financial instability, fear of the future and many other difficulties, therefore they had higher levels of worries, anxiety and even parental burnout (a syndrome characterized by overwhelming exhaustion and the feeling of lacking achievements as parents) ( 51 ), which is detrimental to children's mental health, as children are particularly sensitive to the emotional status of their parents ( 71 ). Köhler-Dauner et al ( 53 ) found that there was a positive and significant effect of maternal perceived stress on children's emotional problems and hyperactivity and inattention behaviors.…”

“…Resilience of parents COVID-19 is a good instance of traumatic stress which creates significant impacts on the parents' resilience to deal with many stressors outlined in the foregoing paragraphs. Of the 30 included studies, only two studies explored the relationship between parents' resilience and children's mental health (57,65). In Mariani Wigley et al's study (57), mothers' resilience was positively correlated with children's resilience.…”