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Parent Mental Health Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Abstract

Although extant cross-sectional data suggest that parents have experienced numerous challenges (e.g., homeschooling, caregiver burden) and mental health consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic, longitudinal data are needed to confirm mental health changes relative to pre-pandemic levels and identify which specific pandemic-related changes most highly predict mental health during the pandemic. In two longitudinal subsamples (N = 299 and N = 175), we assessed change in anxiety, depression, and stress before and during the pandemic and whether the accumulation of pandemic-related changes predicted observed mental health changes. On average, parents reported increased depression and anxiety, but no significant changes in reported stress. Moreover, increased interpersonal conflict, difficulty managing work and caregiving responsibilities, and increased economic challenges were the types of pandemic-related changes that most strongly predicted worse mental health, highlighting that juggling caregiving responsibilities and economic concerns, along with the pandemic’s impact on interpersonal family relationships are key predictors of worsening parental mental illness symptoms.

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Data Availability

All TBED-C and MTwiNS data for the current study will be shared publicly via the NIMH Data Archive, as mandated in our funding agreement. Publicly available study data: https://nda.nih.gov/edit_collection.html?id=2818. Burt, S. A., & Hyde, L. W.; 2017; Mechanisms underlying resilience to neighborhood disadvantage; NIMH Data Archive; 2818. All SAND data for the current study will be shared publicly via the NIMH Data Archive, as mandated in our funding agreement. Publicly available study data: https://nda.nih.gov/edit_collection.html?id=3306. Mitchell, C., Hyde, L. W., and Monk, C. S. 2019. Computational examination of RDoC threat and reward constructs in a representative, predominantly low-income, longitudinal sample at increased risk for internalizing disorders. NIMH Data Archive. 3306.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the staff of the TBED-C and SAND studies for their hard work, and we thank the families who participated in TBED-C and SAND for sharing their lives with us.

Funding

This work was supported by funds from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institute of Health: R01MH103761 (PI: C.S.M.), R01MH121079 (PIs: C.S.M., C.M., L.W.H.), UH3MH114249 (PI: S.A.B. and L.W.H); the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institute of Health: R01HD093334 (PI: S.A.B. and L.W.H., R01HD093334-S1 (G.L.S.); the Brain and Behavior Foundation: NARSAD young Investigator Grant (L.W.H.); and the National Science Foundation: Graduate Research Fellowship (G.L.S.). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Institute of Health or the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Gabriela L. Suarez, Montana H. Boone, Paula Guzman, Nestor L. Lopez-Duran, Christopher S. Monk & Luke W. Hyde

  2. Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    S. Alexandra Burt, Elizabeth A. Shewark & Kelly L. Klump

  3. Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Colter Mitchell, Christopher S. Monk & Luke W. Hyde

Authors
  1. Gabriela L. Suarez
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Contributions

G.L.S., S.A.B., L.W.H., C.M., and C.S.M.: contributed to the study concept. S.A.B., K.L.K., L.W.H., C.M., N.L.L., and C.S.M.: contributed to the study design. E.A.S.: performed exploratory and confirmatory analyses for the EPII and created the negative and positive change sum scores used in the paper. G.L.S., M.H.B., and P.G.: performed the main data analysis and interpretation of results under the supervision of L.W.H., S.A.B., C.M., and C.S.M. G.L.S., M.H.B., and P.G. drafted the manuscript, and S.A.B., E.A.S., C.M., N.L.L., K.L.K., C.S.M., and L.W.H.: provided critical revisions and intellectual content. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the paper for submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luke W. Hyde.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

All study participants provided informed consent and study protocols for data presented in this report were approved by the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board. The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Suarez, G.L., Boone, M.H., Burt, S.A. et al. Parent Mental Health Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01642-6

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