Mental Health Among Parents of Children Aged <18 Years and Unpaid Caregivers of Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, December 2020 and February–⁠March 2021

Abstract

Early during the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly two thirds of unpaid caregivers of adults reported adverse mental or behavioral health symptoms, compared with approximately one third of noncaregivers † (1). In addition, 27% of parents of children aged <18 years reported that their mental health had worsened during the pandemic (2). To examine mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic among U.S. adults on the basis of their classification as having a parenting role (i.e., unpaid persons caring for children and adolescents aged <18 years, referred to as children in this report) or being an unpaid caregiver of adults (i.e., persons caring for adults aged ≥18 years), § CDC analyzed data from cross-sectional surveys that were administered during December 2020 and February-March 2021 for The COVID-19 Outbreak Public Evaluation (COPE) Initiative. ¶ Respondents were categorized as parents only, caregivers of adults only, parents-caregivers (persons in both roles), or nonparents/noncaregivers (persons in neither role). Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for any adverse mental health symptoms, particularly suicidal ideation, were higher among all respondents who were parents, caregivers of adults, or both compared with respondents who were nonparents/ noncaregivers and were highest among persons in both roles

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Families’ Mental Health: The Role Played by Parenting Stress, Parents’ Past Trauma, and Resilience

“…[ 17 ] and by Czeisler and coll. [ 16 ] that have shown a deterioration in parents’ psychological well-being due to COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly affected children’s psychological well-being through the resulting increase of parenting stress levels [ 5 , 29 , 53 ]. In this field, clinicians and researchers rooted in the Developmental Psychopathological framework have widely suggested that parental psychopathological difficulties may affect children’s emotional-adaptive functioning in a cascading way [ 64 ], from the transmission of predisposition to (epi-)genetic vulnerabilities [ 65 , 66 ], to children’s exposure to an adverse affective family environment [ 67 , 68 , 69 ], including poor quality of parent-child interactions [ 30 , 70 , 71 ], family functioning [ 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 ], and high parenting stress levels [ 76 , 77 ].…”

“…Nevertheless, some families have shown adaptive responses to the adverse circumstances imposed by the COVID-19 preventive strategies [ 13 ], maintaining a positive involvement with family members and the extra-family social network [ 14 , 15 ], and experiencing a sense of self-efficacy [ 2 ]. Nevertheless, national and international research reported that a large part of families of the general population experienced the pandemic as a traumatic event, manifesting anxiety, depression [ 16 ], and peritraumatic distress symptoms [ 17 , 18 ]. In this context, the few studies conducted during the so-called “second wave” of COVID-19 have confirmed the long-term effects on mental health and increased psychopathological symptoms as the pandemic continues [ 18 , 19 , 20 ].…”

“…International literature focused on the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families has reported psychopathological symptoms in parents and children [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ], and that parents’ psychopathological problems due to COVID-19 may affect children’s psychological functioning both directly than via high parenting stress levels [ 5 , 18 , 28 , 29 ]. To prevent the short- and long-term negative outcomes related to these processes on parents’ and children’s psychological well-being, it is important to increase the knowledge on families’ factors that may exacerbate or mitigate the risk exerted by psychopathological risk and parenting stress experienced by parents during the pandemic.…”

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing body of research has shown increased psychopathological symptoms among parents and children [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ], and significant associations with parenting stress levels [ 5 , 18 , 20 ], parents’ past trauma [ 40 , 41 ], and parents’ resilience [ 6 , 45 , 50 ]. The significant mediation role played parenting stress levels on the relationship between parent’s psychopathological symptoms due to COVID-19 pandemic and children’s psychopathological problems has also been established [ 5 , 18 , 28 , 29 ].…”

Two Years of COVID-19: Understanding Impact and Implications for the Mental Health of Older Adults

“…However, as more longitudinal studies emerge, it is apparent that mental health impact may vary and evolve among older adults depending on their individual circumstances. Longitudinal data are sharpening our understanding of the long-term effects of COVID among recoverees 8 , long COVID 9 , the impact of physical and social distancing 10 and the disproportionate impact on the health of people with dementia and especially their caregivers 11 , 12 , 13 .…”