Maternal Functioning and Psychological Distress During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Publication: Journal of Women's Health
Volume 32, Issue Number 2
Abstract
Background: Our objective was to understand maternal functioning and psychological distress among mothers of young children in the United States during April/May 2020, early in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Materials and Methods: Participants were 862 moms of children aged 0–3 years old who completed an online survey. We examined maternal functioning (maternal competency and self-care subscales from the Barkin Index of Maternal Functioning) and psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and stress subscales of the DASS-21), and then examined interaction effects of COVID-19 impact and socioeconomic status (SES; represented by income and education).
Results: Mothers' reports of higher maternal functioning correlated with lower psychological distress and both sets of factors varied substantially by SES and COVID-19 Impact. Higher COVID-19 Impact was associated with lower functioning and greater distress. Higher income and education were associated with better maternal self-care, but not maternal competency. Although we expected high SES to buffer mothers from a higher impact of COVID-19, we found that mothers with high SES reported a lower level of maternal competence and more stress than low-SES mothers. Interactions between COVID-19 impact and SES predicting maternal functioning and psychological distress revealed that when COVID-19 impact was low, high SES was associated with high functioning scores and less distress.
Conclusions: This work challenges the assumptions that a stressful event will be uniformly experienced by mothers of young children as well as the stress-buffering role of higher SES. This study highlights the importance of considering SES when characterizing maternal functioning and psychological distress during times of high stress. Further research is needed to examine the processes contributing to these discrepancies.
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The results of this project have not been published previously in any form. No outside contributors/sponsors were involved in the preparation or submission of this work.
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Copyright 2023, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
History
Published online: 8 February 2023
Published in print: February 2023
Published ahead of print: 29 September 2022
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No competing financial interests exist.
Funding Information
This research was funded by a Faculty Research and Development Grant from Hofstra University.
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