Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
Department of Genetic Epidemiology in Psychiatry, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
Stress. 2023 Nov;26(1):2234060. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2023.2234060.
The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected the lives of families and the well-being of both parents and their children. Various factors, including prenatal stress, dysregulated stress response systems, and genetics may have influenced how the stress caused by the pandemic impacted the well-being of different family members. The present work investigated if emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic could be predicted by developmental stress-related and genetic factors. Emotional well-being of 7-10 year-old children ( = 263) and mothers ( = 241) (participants in a longitudinal German birth cohort (POSEIDON)) was assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic using the CRISIS questionnaire at two time periods (July 2020-October 2020; November 2020-February 2021). Associations of the children's and mothers' well-being with maternal perceived stress, of the children's well-being with their salivary and morning urine cortisol at 45 months, and polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for depression, schizophrenia, loneliness were investigated. Lower emotional well-being was observed in both children and mothers during compared to before the pandemic, with the children's but not the mothers' emotional well-being improving over the course of the pandemic. A positive association between the child and maternal emotional well-being was found. Prenatally assessed maternal perceived stress was associated with a lower well-being in children, but not in mothers. Cortisol measures and PRSs were not significantly associated with the children's emotional well-being. The present study confirms that emotional well-being of children and mothers are linked, and were negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with differences in development over time.
新冠疫情大流行严重影响了家庭生活和父母及其子女的福祉。包括产前压力、压力反应系统失调和遗传等各种因素可能影响了大流行带来的压力对不同家庭成员福祉的影响方式。本研究旨在调查新冠疫情期间的情绪健康是否可以通过与发育相关的应激和遗传因素来预测。使用 CRISIS 问卷，在两个时间点（2020 年 7 月至 10 月；2020 年 11 月至 2021 年 2 月）评估了 7-10 岁儿童（n=263）和母亲（n=241）（参与德国纵向出生队列（POSEIDON））在新冠疫情期间的情绪健康状况。调查了儿童和母亲的幸福感与母亲感知压力的关系，儿童的幸福感与他们 45 个月时唾液和晨尿皮质醇的关系，以及抑郁、精神分裂症和孤独的多基因风险评分（PRS）。与疫情前相比，儿童和母亲在疫情期间的情绪健康状况都较差，而随着疫情的发展，儿童的情绪健康状况有所改善，但母亲的情绪健康状况没有改善。研究发现，儿童和母亲的情绪健康呈正相关。产前评估的母亲感知压力与儿童的幸福感降低有关，但与母亲的幸福感无关。皮质醇测量和 PRS 与儿童的情绪健康状况没有显著相关性。本研究证实，儿童和母亲的情绪健康状况相互关联，且受到新冠疫情的负面影响，且随时间的发展而有所不同。
