Effects of COVID-19 on Families with Young Children: A Focus on Families of Essential Workers

• In Event: Factors affecting parenting during the Pandemic

Abstract

The psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have disproportionately affected families with children (APA 2020); these effects are exacerbated for low-income households (Chen et al., 2022), families of color (Wamser-Nanney et al., 2021), and those with greater COVID-19 exposures, e.g. essential workers (Lancet, 2020). Reduced resources and greater stressors due to COVID-19 have resulted in increases in parents’ mental health symptoms (Russell et al., 2021), with implications for parenting (McRae et al., 2021) and children’s problem behaviors (Penner et al., 2022). Families with essential workers faced even further COVID-19 exposure and risks, increasing their risk for these negative outcomes. Furthermore, much of the extant COVID-19 literature has focused on school-aged children; less is known about the effects on parent functioning, parenting, and young children’s outcomes, as well as on families of essential workers. This paper utilizes data from Smart Beginnings, an RCT of a tiered intervention with parents and children from birth to school-age, to examine associations between COVID exposures and mothers’ psychosocial outcomes, parenting, and child behaviors.

Hypotheses

We expected that higher levels of COVID-19 exposures would be associated with reduced maternal psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms and COVID-19 related distress), lower quality mother-child relational health (i.e., daily parenting hassles and harsh/inconsistent punishment), and increased child behavioral issues (i.e., parent-reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors), and that these associations would be exacerbated for families with essential workers.

Study Population

Mother-child dyads enrolled in Smart Beginnings, an school-readiness intervention for Medicaid-eligible families in New York City and Pittsburgh, were surveyed between March 2020 and September 2022. From this larger study, 207 families with a 4 year old child provided complete data.

Methods

Mothers reported on COVID-19 exposure and related distress using the COVID-19 Exposure and Family Impact Scales (Kazak et al., 2021). They also reported levels of depressive symptoms (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; Cox et al. 1987), parenting daily hassles (Crnic & Greenberg, 1990), discipline methods (Parent Practices Interview; Webster-Stratton et al., 2001), and their child’s behaviors (Child Behavioral Checklist; CBCL/1.5-5; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000).

Results

Preliminary analyses found that families with higher levels of COVID exposure reported higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms, COVID-19 related distress, parenting daily hassles, and harsh/inconsistent punishment, and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors (see Table 1).

Families with an essential worker (n = 125) reported higher levels of COVID-19 exposure than families without an essential worker (n = 81). They also reported higher levels of depressive symptoms and parenting daily hassles, marginally higher rates of harsh/inconsistent punishment, although no differences in child behavior were found (see Table 2).

Further analyses will examine these relations via multivariate models, to account for pre-pandemic levels and to test for mediating pathways.

Conclusion

Results demonstrate that low-income families with young children report reduced well-being and low-quality relational health in association with COVID-19 exposure; these findings are exacerbated for families with essential workers. These results and future planned analyses offer a critical window into the implications of the pandemic on families of young children.

Authors

• Ashleigh Iris Aviles, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth B. Miller, New York University School of Medicine

• Helena Wippick, New York University

• Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh

• Alan L Mendelsohn, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

• Pamela Morris-Perez, New York University