Mental-Health Trajectories of U.S. Parents With Young Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Universal Introduction of Risk

Parents of young children were a subgroup of the population identified early in the pandemic as experiencing significant mental-health symptoms. Using a longitudinal sample of 3,085 parents from across the United States who had a child or children age 0 to 5, in the present study, we identified parental mental-health trajectories from April to November 2020 predicted by pre-COVID-19 cumulative risk and COVID-19-specific risk factors. Both growth-mixture modeling and latent-growth-curve modeling were used to test the relationship between risk factors and parent mental health. Pre-COVID-19 cumulative risk and COVID-19-specific risks of financial strain, decreased employment, and increased family conflict were salient risk factors predicting poor mental-health trajectories across both modeling approaches. These finding have public-health implications because prolonged exposure to mental-health symptoms in parents constitutes a risk factor for child development.

Automated summary

Parents of young children were identified as a subgroup experiencing significant mental-health symptoms during the pandemic. This study found that financial strain, decreased employment, and increased family conflict, along with pre-COVID-19 cumulative risk, were significant risk factors predicting poor mental-health trajectories in parents. These findings have important public-health implications as prolonged exposure to mental-health symptoms in parents poses a risk to child development.