Impact of COVID-19 on maternal health and child care behavior: Evidence from a quasi-experimental study of vulnerable communities in Boa Vista, Brazil.

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 related distress has been shown to have negative associations with family well-being.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the immediate impact of acute COVID-19 infection on maternal well-being and parenting practices among Brazilian families.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

We studied 2'579 mothers (29'913 observations) of young children from vulnerable neighborhoods in Boa Vista, Brazil over 12 months.

METHODS

We monitored family health and caregiving behavior including the incidence of COVID-19 infections in the surveyed households through bi-weekly phone interviews over 50 weeks, from June 2020 to May 2021. Primary outcomes were home-based child stimulation, positive parenting behavior, and parenting stress. We used fixed effects panel regressions to estimate the impact of household COVID-19 infections on parenting outcomes.

RESULTS

Over the study period, 441 participants (17.1%; 831 (3.0%) observations) reported at least 1 positive COVID-19 infection in their household. Household COVID-19 infections significantly reduced home-based stimulation by 0.10 SDs (95%CI: -0.18, -0.01), positive parenting behaviors by 0.14 SDs (-0.21, -0.01), and increased parenting stress by 0.07 SDs (0.02, 0.12). The impact on home-based stimulation was most pronounced when the mother herself had a COVID-19 infection (-0.16; -0.29, -0.04). Parenting stress responded most strongly to mother or child COVID-19 infections. Effects were relatively short-lived, only children's infections' on parental stress was still detectable 2 weeks after initial infection.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that COVID-19 infections cause substantial disruptions in children's home environments - additional short-term support for families with acute infections could attenuate the negative impact on children's home environment during the pandemic.