Longitudinal transactional relationships between caregiver and child mental health during the COVID-19 global pandemic

Emily L Robertson,Ellyn Schmidt,Bridget Davidson,Jennifer Piscitello,Ruby Natale,Carolina Mallar

doi:10.1186/s13034-021-00422-1

Abstract

BackgroundEmerging work examining the psychological impact of COVID-19 on children and families suggests that the relationship between pandemic-related stress, child psychosocial functioning, and caregiver mental health are interrelated. However, much of this research is unidirectional and thus little is known about the bidirectional cascading effects children and caregivers may experience. The current study examined the transactional relationships between caregiver and child mental health over time during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsLinguistically, racially, and ethnically diverse caregivers (N = 286) of young children completed measures of caregiver mental health, caregiver pandemic-related stress, and child mental health (i.e., externalizing, internalizing, prosocial behavior) across three time points in the spring of 2020.ResultsUsing autoregressive cross-lagged analyses, impaired caregiver mental health at Time 1 (April 2020) predicted increased caregiver pandemic-related stress at Time 2 (May 2020). Caregiver pandemic-related stress at Time 1 predicted increased child internalizing symptoms at Time 2 which, in turn, predicted increased caregiver pandemic-related stress at Time 3 (July 2020). Lastly, impaired caregiver mental health at Time 2 (May 2020) predicted increased child externalizing symptoms at Time 3 (July 2020).ConclusionsAssessing transactional relationships between child and caregiver mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic is important to inform models of risk and resilience. Interventions at the level of the caregiver, the child, and/or the family should be considered as a way to interrupt potential negative developmental cascades.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic is a multisystem, cascading disaster that has produced negative impacts on young children and caregivers [1]
Recent work suggests that pandemic-related stress and child psychosocial functioning are interrelated in their influence on caregiver’s mental health, such that child behavior problems and caregiver pandemic-related stress are associated with worse caregiver mental health outcomes [1, 5, 15, 16]
Measures In order to assess the functioning of families with young children during the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a Risk and Resilience Survey based partially on previously validated measures

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is a multisystem, cascading disaster that has produced negative impacts on young children and caregivers [1]. Local and global governments and economies have been strained by the pandemic affecting the efficiency of various resources that individuals and families rely on (e.g., transportation, manufacturing, emergency, and other social services (e.g., child protective services), and humanitarian agencies) [1] These disruptions are often associated with increased stress and negative mental health consequences among young children and their families immediately following the pandemic [13, 14], yet little is known about how children and caregivers are functioning over time. Emerging work examining the psychological impact of COVID-19 on children and families suggests that the relationship between pandemic-related stress, child psychosocial functioning, and caregiver mental health are interrelated. The current study examined the transactional relationships between caregiver and child mental health over time during the COVID-19 pandemic

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