Impact of gender/caregiver role on experiences of becoming parents, mental health and parenting quality.

• In Event: Transition to parenting: International experiences of new parent well-being, co-parenting and relationships

Abstract

Introduction:
Becoming a parent is one of the most significant life transitions that adults experience (Nomaguchi et al., 2003). While the widely held western public assumption is that this is an overwhelmingly positive experience (Machin, 2015), research, clinical practice, and international health data has demonstrated that this major life transition is often fraught with challenges to self identity, mental health, relationships, and economic stability (Almond, 2009). With the current ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, those experiencing this life transition of becoming a parent are also experiencing pregnancy, birth, and early parenting in an unprecedented environment (Chu et al., 2020). The current research examines the expectations versus lived experiences of parents during the pandemic, and how this affects perinatal mental health.

Current Study:
In the current research a bio-ecological perspective (O’Toole et al., 2014) is taken on the resilience of parents to the challenges of transitioning to becoming a parent in the year of a pandemic. This perspective considers the role of the individual, family, social context, and health systems in explaining variations in parental resilience. Two-hundred parents were invited to participate in a survey and semi-structured interview study of their expectations and experiences of becoming a parent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health infrastructure information was dually collected by means of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request of all England health boards on online perinatal well being services provision and parent report of provision. Across all health bodies no health board provided perinatal mental health information directed at fathers. While postnatal depression was commonly addressed by health boards, this was again maternal-centric. Parenting stress was also considered by health boards. However, parental anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were far less likely to be considered by health boards, with no information or screening available for fathers.

To consider idiosyncratic factors of parent gender, caregiving role, trait intolerance of uncertainty (IoU), temperament and parenting coping strategies data were collected through the parent report survey. Family and social context measures were collected by means of the social support index and GRIMS relational well-being parent report survey measures. Parental well being measures of the parenting stress inventory (PSI), trait anxiety inventory (TAI), and Edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS), and parental exhaustion (PES) were collected. Lastly, expectation of the transition to parenting versus lived reality was collated in line with the Violated Expectation Framework (VEF) through semi-structured interview. Analysis will examine the factors impacting parental resilience during the pandemic, with consideration of future proofing care and health provision to ensure parental wellbeing is best supported.

Author

• Kate Ellis-Davies, Swansea University
  Presenting Author