Poor Mental Health in Caregivers of Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Its Relationships with Caregivers' Difficulties in Managing the Children's Behaviors and Worsened Psychological Symptoms during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Hui-Wen Tseng,Fan-Hao Chou,Yu-Min Chen,Ray C Hsiao,Ching-Shu Tsai,Cheng-Fang Yen

doi:10.3390/ijerph18189745

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has thrown out a challenge to caregivers of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The present study examined the factors related to the poor general mental health state of the caregivers of children with ADHD during the COVID-19 pandemic, including (1) difficulties of caregivers in asking their child to adopt protective behaviors against COVID-19, (2) difficulties of caregivers in managing the child’s daily performance, and (3) worsened psychological symptoms in children. In total, 161 caregivers completed an online questionnaire to provide data regarding their general mental health state and difficulties in asking their child with ADHD to adopt protective behaviors against COVID-19 and in managing the child’s after-school learning, sleep routine, and internet use, as well as worsened psychological symptoms. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that caregivers’ difficulties in managing ADHD children’s self-protective behaviors and after-school learning and the children’s worsened emotional symptoms were significantly associated with poor caregiver general mental health state. An intervention that enhances the mental health of caregivers of children with ADHD during the COVID-19 pandemic by addressing their difficulties in managing the children’s behaviors and psychological problems is warranted.

Highlights

The present study examined the factors related to the poor caregiver mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, including (1) difficulties of caregivers in asking their child to adopt protective behaviors against COVID-19, (2) difficulties of caregivers in managing the child’s daily performance, and (3) worsened psychological symptoms in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by controlling for demographics and medications used in the children for treating ADHD
2, and the results indicated that, after controlling for demographics and medication cluded in Model 2, and the results indicated that, after controlling for demographics and use, the difficulty in managing themanaging child’s after-school learning was significantly associated medication use, the difficulty in the child’s after-school learning was signifiwith caregiver mental health
The difficulties faced by the caregivers in asking their child to adopt self-protective behaviors and in managing the child’s after-school learning and the worsened emotional symptoms of the children during the COVID-19 pandemic were significantly associated with poor caregiver mental health

Summary

Introduction

Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 on the Mental Health of Caregivers of Children. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has severely affected the lives of people of all ages in myriad ways [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Caregivers of children face the negative influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on their own physical and psychological health and family, social, occupational, and leisure lives, and the challenges of COVID-19-related adjustment problems among their children [9,10]. Caregiver–child dyadic stress perceived by caregivers exacerbated the behavioral and emotional problems of children during quarantine for COVID-19 [10]. The mental health problems faced by the caregivers may further increase caregiver–child conflicts during the COVID-19 pandemic [12]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion