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The Pandemic and the Mental Health of Parents and Children Across Pregnancy, Infancy, and Childhood

Fri, April 9, 2:45 to 4:15pm EDT (2:45 to 4:15pm EDT), Virtual

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Maternal mental health and well-being has significant consequences for child development. The deleterious effects of maternal stress, anxiety, and depression are well documented in both the intrauterine period and across childhood. The COVID-19 pandemic provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand how stress, anxiety, and depression arising from a pervasive stressor impact child development and well-being. Each talk in this symposium addresses this question by focusing on a different developmental stage: pregnancy, infancy, and childhood. The first talk examines the link between pandemic-related distress and the mental health of pregnant women, with a specific focus on race. Also discussed is how resilience can mitigate distress in relation to depression and anxiety. The second talk focuses on mother-infant bonding in the postpartum period. The analyses explore how mother’s pandemic-related distress and postpartum depression undermine mother-infant bonding, as well as how social support, even during the pandemic, can buffer these risky pathways. The third talk explores the impact of parenting practices on children’s mental health during the pandemic, with a focus on childhood conduct problems, including aggression, inattention, and rule-breaking. Data presented in this talk highlight that distress arising from the pandemic, as well as parenting practices, are directly impacting risk for these adverse childhood outcomes. Finally, the discussant will underscore the importance of understanding the effects of maternal mental health on child development and how knowledge of resilience factors, such as emotion regulation and social support, can lead to targeted interventions that begin prenatally to improve the well-being of children and families.

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