[Mental distress during the COVID-19 pandemic among mothers of young children and the related factors: A focus on their difficulties in raising their child, concerns about their child's development, social support, and capacity to receive support].

Objectives　We examined the relationships between the development of severe mental distress among mothers of young children during COVID-19 and the related factors including difficulties in raising child, concerns about child's development, social support, and capacity to receive support using comparable pre-COVID-19 baseline data. Severe mental distress was defined by a score of K6≧10 on the Psychological Distress Scale.Methods　We conducted a baseline survey in February 2020 and obtained responses from 4,700 mothers of young children. A follow-up survey was conducted in June 2020. We obtained responses from 2,489 participants of the original group. The K6 scores (four groups) of two surveys were compared. Thereafter, 521 participants who had severe mental distress at the baseline were excluded, and 1,968 participants were included in the Poisson regression analysis. We adjusted for maternal age, education, marital and employment status, household income, children's age, number of children, and changes during COVID-19 pandemic. The adjusted incident rate ratios (IRRs) were estimated using K6≧10 at follow-up as the dependent variable, and the independent variables were having difficulty in raising a child, concerns about child's development, social support, and capacity to receive support.Results　At the baseline, 20.9% of mothers had severe mental distress. At follow-up, this value increased significantly to 25.3%. Mothers who developed severe mental distress by the time of the follow-up survey were 333 (16.9%), and they were more likely to have had difficulty in raising their child, concerns about child's development, lower levels of positive attitudes toward receiving support (capacity to receive support), and lower levels of social support.Conclusions　The mental health of mothers caring for young children worsened during the COVID-19 outbreak. Factors related to the development of severe mental distress included having difficulty in raising a child, concerns about child's development, and lower levels of positive attitudes toward receiving support (capacity to receive support) and lower levels of social support. Providing parenting support, consultation and rehabilitation, and exploring approaches to enhance capacity for receiving support are required.