Emotionally Dysregulated Mothers Give Birth Earlier and Receive Less Social Support Over Time During Coronavirus Pandemic

• In Event: Maternal Perinatal Mental Health in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: Maternal emotion dysregulation is a transdiagnostic marker that spans multiple mental health diagnoses and serves as an indicator of maternal distress. Prenatal distress has been linked to infant outcomes such as low birthweight and preterm birth (Lima et al., 2018; Liou et al., 2016). It is possible that social support can provide a buffer to health consequences that may occur due to maternal distress (Hopkins et al., 2018). However, social support may not be evenly distributed among women. It may be that those who need it most, women with high levels of emotion dysregulation, receive it the least. The coronavirus pandemic has been an unprecedented time of unfamiliar change for many women. Understanding the trends and consequences of these changes is imperative for us to be able to aid women and infants most in need. We examined: (1) whether emotion dysregulation was associated with infant birthweight and gestational age, (2) whether social support was related to maternal emotion dysregulation, and (3) whether emotion dysregulation and social support change over time during the coronavirus pandemic.

Method: Two hundred thirty-nine women took part in this study during their third trimester of pregnancy. Data collection began in April following the start of the coronavirus pandemic and is still ongoing. Online questionnaires were completed prenatally and birth outcomes were obtained from hospital records following the birth of their infants. Maternal emotion dysregulation was measured using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004) via prenatal self-report. Women also reported on the level of social support they currently were receiving and the number of resources to which they had access.

Results: Pregnant women with high levels of emotion dysregulation had infants born younger (B = -.09, p = .04) and they reported lower levels of social support (B = -.03, p < .001). There was a significant between-person interaction between time (in months) and emotion dysregulation (B = .02, p = .05): highly dysregulated women tended to receive less social support at later time of the pandemic than at the beginning (t = -2.12, p =.03), while levels of received support reported by women with average or low emotion dysregulation were not different across the pandemic (see Figure 3). No birthweight differences were observed.

Conclusion: During the coronavirus pandemic, maternal emotion dysregulation appears to be a risk factor for infant gestational age. More highly dysregulated mothers are also more likely to receive less social support. Even though it appears that these highly dysregulated women may be in greater need of support, they tended to receive less social support as the pandemic continued throughout the summer. These findings suggest that increased and continued social support is greatly needed for dysregulated women, and that this may help extend infant gestational age.

Authors

• Mindy A. Brown, Brigham Young University
  Presenting Author

• Mengyu (Miranda) Gao, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, China
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marilynn Lape Santana, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dylan Neff, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Robert Vlisides-Henry, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michael Tao, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sheila E Crowell, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lee Raby, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Liz Conradt, Duke University
  Non-Presenting Author