Abstract
We examined pathways from pre-existing psychosocial and economic vulnerability to mental health difficulties and stress in families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from two time points from a multi-cohort study initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic were used. Parents of children 6–18 years completed questionnaires on pre-COVID-19 socioeconomic and demographic factors in addition to material deprivation and stress due to COVID-19 restrictions, mental health, and family functioning. Youth 10 years and older also completed their own measures of mental health and stress. Using structural equation modelling, pathways from pre-existing vulnerability to material deprivation and stress due to COVID-19 restrictions, mental health, and family functioning, including reciprocal pathways, were estimated. Pre-existing psychosocial and economic vulnerability predicted higher material deprivation due to COVID-19 restrictions which in turn was associated with parent and child stress due to restrictions and mental health difficulties. The reciprocal effects between increased child and parent stress and greater mental health difficulties at Time 1 and 2 were significant. Reciprocal effects between parent and child mental health were also significant. Finally, family functioning at Time 2 was negatively impacted by child and parent mental health and stress due to COVID-19 restrictions at Time 1. Psychosocial and economic vulnerability is a risk factor for material deprivation during COVID-19, increasing the risk of mental health difficulties and stress, and their reciprocal effects over time within families. Implications for prevention policy and parent and child mental health services are discussed.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02459-z.
Highlights
The lives of many families have changed drastically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
We examined the impact of material deprivation on children and parents’ stress due to COVID-19 restrictions and mental health difficulties, and the reciprocal effects of these latter variables over two time points
At Time 1, pre-existing socioeconomic vulnerability was significantly positively associated with material and economic deprivation and parent stress due to COVID-19 restrictions, parent mental health scores and parent-rated child mood, inattention, and fidgety behaviours with correlations ranging between r = .08 and .26, but not with parent-rated child anxiety (r = .03, p = .38)
Summary
The lives of many families have changed drastically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Families with pre-existing psychosocial vulnerabilities are likely strained (Hinojosa et al, 2015) and the introduction of further disruption can lead to disproportionate negative consequences, especially when mental health services are halted (Golberstein et al, 2020; Masonbrink & Hurley, 2020) These vulnerability factors may directly impact the level of financial and material deprivation experienced due to COVID-19 and indirectly impact the associated level of stress and mental health difficulties within the family. The pandemic is a time-limited stressor, which may limit our delineation of developmental processes and change, it offers a unique window to capturing some families’ susceptibility and response to stress and the implications for mental health Understanding these pathways can offer important information for prevention of mental health difficulties within families and valuable insight to the function of psychosocial and economic factors in children’s and parents’ mental health during times of public health crises
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