For vulnerable families, the pandemic's effect on mental health is swift
and harsh

Date:
September 2, 2020
Source:
Duke University
Summary:
In just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic swiftly and
substantially worsened mental health among US hourly service
workers and their children -- especially those experiencing multiple
hardships, according to new research.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
In just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic swiftly and substantially
worsened mental health among U.S. hourly service workers and their
children - - especially those experiencing multiple hardships, according
to new research from the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke
University and Barnard College.


==========================================================================
The study leverages real-time, daily survey data collected from Feb. 20,
before the pandemic hit the U.S., to April 27, when it was well underway,
to examine how the crisis affected parents' and children's mental
well-being. The 645 survey respondents were parents of young children
working in hourly service- industry positions in retail, food service
or hotel industries in a large U.S.

city.

Nearly half (49.5%) of the participants were Black Americans, 23% were
Hispanic Americans, and 83% were women.

The findings appear today in Pediatrics.

The surveys showed strong, immediate impacts of the pandemic on vulnerable families. Parents saw quick deterioration in their own mental well-being, reporting more frequent "negative moods" since March 14, the day after
the first major restrictions in response to COVID-19 were announced. The majority of respondents experienced multiple hardships, including
household job loss (60%), income decline (69%), caregiving burden (45%)
and illness (12%).

"The COVID pandemic has created substantial hardship for working
families," said Anna Gassman-Pines, co-author of the study and
associate professor of public policy at Duke's Sanford School of Public
Policy. "What's worse is that the more hardship families experienced,
the worse parents' and children's mental health." Not surprisingly,
those who experienced two and three hardships reported more negative
moods, worse sleep quality and more uncooperative child behavior than
those who did not. For both parents and children, mental health was
worst among those who suffered all four hardships.



========================================================================== "These results should raise concern, given the strong links between
parental psychological well-being and the well-being of children,"
the authors write.

Gassman-Pines and co-author Elizabeth Ananat of Barnard College suggest pediatricians should screen for mental health problems among children in
their practices, with particular attention to children whose families
are especially vulnerable to both the economic and health aspects of
the crisis.

During the stressful pandemic, pediatricians should also help parents understand and watch for potential signs of mental distress, the authors
write.

Those may include uncooperative behavior and acting out.

The authors also urge the government to provide more support for families, through restarting expanded unemployment insurance benefits and increasing
the generosity of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

"What we really see here is that, as hardships pile up, the combined
weight causes severe distress for families. Resilience only takes
you so far, and the multiple dimensions of hardship caused by this
pandemic -- lost jobs, lost child care and education, sickness -- are stretching families to the breaking point," said Ananat. "Families need support, from their pediatricians and, hopefully, from the government."
This research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes
of Health (Grant #1R21HD100893-01), the National Science Foundation
(Award # SES-1921190), the Russell Sage Foundation (Grant #1811-10382)
and Washington Center for Equitable Growth.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Duke_University. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Anna Gassman-Pines, Elizabeth Oltmans Ananat, John
Fitz-Henley. COVID-19
and Parent-Child Psychological Well-being. Pediatrics, 2020;
e2020007294 DOI: 10.1542/peds.2020-007294 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200902182417.htm

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