Household chaos, maternal stress, and maternal health behaviors in the United States during the COVID-19 outbreak

Abstract

Objectives: Household chaos, including disorder, noise, and crowding within the home, is a risk factor for poor mental and physical health. Household chaos may act upon maternal behaviors of physical activity and sleep, potentially via higher stress. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationships among household chaos, maternal stress, and maternal physical activity and sleep, and identify barriers to home organization during the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: A cross-sectional study using an online survey of 1721 mothers of preschoolers (ages = 3.0–5.9 years) in the United States was conducted in May 2020 during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and early reopening. Mothers reported demographic characteristics, household chaos, stress, physical activity and sleep, and barriers to home organization during the outbreak. Mediation models were conducted among household chaos, stress, and physical activity and sleep with adjustment for covariates. Results: About half of mothers were middle income (48.2%), employed full-time prior to the outbreak (59.1%), and met the physical activity (47.7%), and sleep guideline (49.7%, 7–9 h/day). Household chaos and stress were both negatively related to physical activity and sleep. For every 1 unit increase in mother’s current stress, mothers were 11% (95% confidence interval = 6% to 16%) less likely to meet the physical activity guideline and 19% (95% confidence interval = 14% to 23%) less likely to meet the sleep guideline. Household chaos was positively related to stress. Stress partially mediated the relationship between household chaos and physical activity and sleep. Virus concerns, occupational changes (i.e. teleworking), and lack of childcare were barriers to home organization. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 outbreak, many mothers had poor sleep and physical activity, which was associated with household chaos and stress. Opportunities to promote order at the individual, household, and community level may result in beneficial mental and physical health in mothers of young children during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond.

The magnitude and importance of perceived health dimensions define effective tailor-made health-promoting interventions per targeted socioeconomic group

“…Another common factor is unemployment or poor job satisfaction having detrimental effects on health (36)(37)(38). Household size has likewise been shown to impact health (39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44). These studies refer to long-term detrimental effects of family SES on health, in the sense of low family income and parents as well as grandparents belonging to low SES groups (44-46).…”

“…These studies refer to long-term detrimental effects of family SES on health, in the sense of low family income and parents as well as grandparents belonging to low SES groups ( 44 – 46 ). In larger families, mothers tend to stay at home caring for children, so these families have lower income than families where the mother is employed ( 41 – 43 , 45 , 46 ). By contrast, obesity in siblings living in larger households appears to be less common and is dependent on order of birth, as younger siblings tend to show higher odds of becoming obese ( 40 , 42 ).…”

“…Whether and how people can escape from such a socially inherited inequality cage or will remain unhealthy from one generation to the next is a point of discussion, as these inequalities persist for many years and even tend to increase despite interventions to change such situations ( 44 ). Crises like the recession of the early 2000 s and the current COVID-19 pandemic might even enhance existing inequalities ( 43 , 47 , 48 ). Petrovic et al ( 3 ) (p. 23) show that “socially disadvantaged individuals tend to adhere more to health detrimental behaviors either due to material and financial constraints, perceptions of fewer benefits of health behaviours for longevity, a lack of knowledge of their detrimental effect, difficulties to take up health promoting messages as well as more pessimistic attitudes about life.…”

“…Clearly more combinations of income and education exist than merely the two of low income/low education vs. high income/high education. Recent studies also report the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the often-highly-educated and mid-to-high-income self-employed, rendering them low-income ( 43 , 47 , 48 ). This shows that income can fluctuate during life and is not a fixed given ( 47 ).…”

Capturing the Experiences and Challenges of Emerging Adults in College During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This research presents findings from an online survey that captured the multi-faceted experiences of emerging adults in college in June 2020, a period that has been documented in the literature as a time following a month of high pandemic-related stress [17]. The current study aims to quantitatively and qualitatively describe the COVID-19-related, financial, environmental, and other-self-identified challenges faced by diverse emerging adults in college.…”