The COVID-19 pandemic was a stressful time to be a parent, and every family reacted differently to the huge changes in their everyday lives. With this in mind, Dr. Stacey Doan and colleagues were interested in investigating COVID-19-related stressors and how mothers and their children were reacting to this increase in stress.
To do this, they asked mothers about a range of stressful events they may have experienced during the pandemic, including questions about whether the mothers had contracted COVID-19 or lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Child behavior was assessed by asking mothers questions about their young child’s behavior that may indicate emotional distress or anxiety. Mothers were also asked about their own symptoms of depression. The researchers then collected hair samples from mothers in order to analyze changes in their stress hormones over time. These data were collected at two time points, first two years before the pandemic and then again between May and August of 2020.
Children in this study showed more anxious behaviors during the pandemic than they had two years prior. In addition, when families experienced more COVID-19 related stress, mothers also had more symptoms of depression. Finally, hair samples indicated that the mothers who showed more symptoms of depression also had higher stress hormone levels. These results may suggest that mothers with higher stress hormone levels were more vulnerable to the negative impacts of experiencing stressful events related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Together this work suggests that biological vulnerability factors interact with stressors to impact the well-being of mothers and consequently, their children.