Scheiber Francesca, Nelson Paige M, Momany Allison, Ryckman Kelli K, Ece Demir-Lira Ö
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, United States.
Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, United States.
Child Youth Serv Rev. 2023 May;148:106888. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.106888. Epub 2023 Feb 22.
Child behavior, which encompasses both internalizing and externalizing behaviors, is associated with many outcomes, including concurrent and future mental health, academic success, and social well-being. Thus, understanding sources of variability in child behavior is crucial for developing strategies aimed at equipping children with necessary resources. Parental mental health (PMH) difficulties and preterm birth may be risk factors for child behavior (CB) problems. Moreover, not only are PMH difficulties more common among parents of preterm children, but preterm children might also be more sensitive than full-term children to environmental stressors. In this study, we examined how PMH and CB changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, how change in PMH related to change in CB, and whether preterm children were more susceptible than full-term children to change in PMH.
Parents that participated in a study prior to the pandemic were invited to complete follow-up questionnaires during the pandemic about PMH and CB. Forty-eight parents completed follow-up questionnaires.
Our results suggested that parental depression symptoms, children's internalizing symptoms, and children's externalizing symptoms significantly increased, and parental well-being significantly decreased during the pandemic. Change in parental depression symptoms, but not change in parental anxiety symptoms or parental well-being, was associated with change in children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Prematurity did not moderate change in PMH, change in CB, or the effect of change in PMH on change in CB.
Our findings have the potential to inform efforts aimed at equipping children with behavioral resources.
儿童行为包括内化行为和外化行为，与许多结果相关，包括当前和未来的心理健康、学业成就及社会幸福感。因此，了解儿童行为变异性的来源对于制定旨在为儿童提供必要资源的策略至关重要。父母心理健康问题和早产可能是儿童行为问题的风险因素。此外，父母心理健康问题在早产儿童的父母中更为常见，而且早产儿童可能比足月儿童对环境压力源更敏感。在本研究中，我们考察了在新冠疫情期间父母心理健康和儿童行为如何变化，父母心理健康的变化与儿童行为的变化有何关系，以及早产儿童是否比足月儿童更容易受到父母心理健康变化的影响。
邀请在疫情之前参与一项研究的父母在疫情期间完成关于父母心理健康和儿童行为的随访问卷。48位父母完成了随访问卷。
我们的结果表明，在疫情期间，父母的抑郁症状、儿童的内化症状和儿童的外化症状显著增加，而父母的幸福感显著下降。父母抑郁症状的变化，而非父母焦虑症状或父母幸福感的变化，与儿童内化和外化症状的变化相关。早产并未调节父母心理健康的变化、儿童行为的变化，或父母心理健康变化对儿童行为变化的影响。
我们的研究结果有可能为旨在为儿童提供行为资源的努力提供信息。
