COVID-19’s Impact on Hispanic/Latinx Caregivers of Young Children in the U.S.: Does Generation Status Matter?

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Background
The disproportionate incidence rates of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease among Latinx peoples and other communities of color have exemplified various preexisting structural inequities in our society, including disparities in health care and economic hardship (Macias Gil et al., 2020). Although these inequities are not novel, the pandemic has exacerbated many of the struggles that Latinx communities have historically faced. Current COVID-19 research has found evidence that Latinx caregivers are reporting a greater average number of pandemic-related stressors than other racial and ethnic groups (Brown et al., 2020).
The Current Study
The current study aims to investigate how COVID-19 impacts elements of Latinx caregivers’ family situations, such as health care access, economic hardship, child behavioral problems, and parental mental health. Additionally, this study also examines whether there are generational differences among these factors to provide a more holistic view of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Latinx caregivers. Examining generational differences may also help reveal if newly immigrated families fare worse than those with established backgrounds in the U.S. It is hypothesized that 1) Hispanic/Latinx caregivers will report greater life stressors (e.g., economic hardship, lack of health care access, child behavioral problems) now than before the pandemic, 2) greater pandemic-related stressors will predict poorer parental mental health, and 3) first-generation Latinx caregivers will report higher levels of pandemic-related life stressors and poorer mental health compared to second- through fourth-generation Latinx caregivers.
Methods & Analytical Plans
Data for this study will be taken from a project that assesses COVID-19’s influence on young children’s caregivers. In this project, weekly online surveys (available in English and Spanish) are disseminated nationally to primary caregivers (age 18 years or older) of children between the ages of 0–5 living in the United States (representative in geographic location, income, and race). This project started in April 2020 and will continue through December 2020. Approximately 1,000 caregivers participate in the survey per week, and Hispanic/Latinx respondents (current n = 1,537, projected n = 2,000) will be drawn from this sample and analyzed. Surveys inquire about basic demographic information, health care coverage, employment status, financial strain, parental mental health, and child well-being before and during the pandemic. Questions were drawn from the Economic Hardship Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety-2 item scale, Child Behavior Checklist, and U.S. Census Bureau household surveys. Study hypotheses will be analyzed using SPSS version 26. Specifically, paired-sample t-tests will be performed to examine differences between variables from before and during the pandemic. Bivariate correlations will be used to analyze the associations between life stressors and caregivers’ mental health. Multiple regression analyses will test generational differences in COVID-related changes in caregivers’ mental health status and life stressors. Data for this study is collected, cleaned, and processed weekly, and final analyses will be conducted after December 2020 when data collection is complete.

Authors

• Ashley Bautista, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

• Allison Kay Kunerth, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sihong Liu, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Philip Andrew Fisher, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author