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Increases in Stressors Prior to-Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Are Associated With Depression Among Middle-Aged Mothers

Working parents in are struggling to balance the demands of their occupation with those of childcare and homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, studies show that women are shouldering more of the burden and reporting greater levels of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression re...

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Autores principales: Taylor, Brittany K., Frenzel, Michaela R., Johnson, Hallie J., Willett, Madelyn P., White, Stuart F., Badura-Brack, Amy S., Wilson, Tony W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8292718/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34305763
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.706120
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author Taylor, Brittany K.
Frenzel, Michaela R.
Johnson, Hallie J.
Willett, Madelyn P.
White, Stuart F.
Badura-Brack, Amy S.
Wilson, Tony W.
author_facet Taylor, Brittany K.
Frenzel, Michaela R.
Johnson, Hallie J.
Willett, Madelyn P.
White, Stuart F.
Badura-Brack, Amy S.
Wilson, Tony W.
author_sort Taylor, Brittany K.
collection PubMed
description Working parents in are struggling to balance the demands of their occupation with those of childcare and homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, studies show that women are shouldering more of the burden and reporting greater levels of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression relative to men. However, research has yet to show that increases in psychological symptoms are linked to changes in stress during the pandemic. Herein, we conduct a small-N study to explore the associations between stress and psychological symptoms during the pandemic among mothers using structural equation modeling, namely latent change score models. Thirty-three mothers completed questionnaires reporting current anxious and depressive symptoms (Beck Anxiety and Depression Index, respectively), as well as stressful life experiences prior to-versus during the pandemic (Social Readjustment Rating Scale). Women endorsed significantly more stressful events during the pandemic, relative to the pre-pandemic period. Additionally, 58% of mothers scored as moderate-to-high risk for developing a stress-related physical illness in the near future because of their pandemic-level stress. Depressive symptoms were associated with the degree of change in life stress, whereas anxiety symptoms were more related to pre-pandemic levels of stress. The present study preliminarily sheds light on the nuanced antecedents to mothers’ experiences of anxious and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although further work is needed in larger, more diverse samples of mothers, this study highlights the potential need for appropriate policies, and prevention and intervention programs to ameliorate the effects of pandemics on mothers’ mental health.
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spelling pubmed-82927182021-07-22 Increases in Stressors Prior to-Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Are Associated With Depression Among Middle-Aged Mothers Taylor, Brittany K. Frenzel, Michaela R. Johnson, Hallie J. Willett, Madelyn P. White, Stuart F. Badura-Brack, Amy S. Wilson, Tony W. Front Psychol Psychology Working parents in are struggling to balance the demands of their occupation with those of childcare and homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, studies show that women are shouldering more of the burden and reporting greater levels of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression relative to men. However, research has yet to show that increases in psychological symptoms are linked to changes in stress during the pandemic. Herein, we conduct a small-N study to explore the associations between stress and psychological symptoms during the pandemic among mothers using structural equation modeling, namely latent change score models. Thirty-three mothers completed questionnaires reporting current anxious and depressive symptoms (Beck Anxiety and Depression Index, respectively), as well as stressful life experiences prior to-versus during the pandemic (Social Readjustment Rating Scale). Women endorsed significantly more stressful events during the pandemic, relative to the pre-pandemic period. Additionally, 58% of mothers scored as moderate-to-high risk for developing a stress-related physical illness in the near future because of their pandemic-level stress. Depressive symptoms were associated with the degree of change in life stress, whereas anxiety symptoms were more related to pre-pandemic levels of stress. The present study preliminarily sheds light on the nuanced antecedents to mothers’ experiences of anxious and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although further work is needed in larger, more diverse samples of mothers, this study highlights the potential need for appropriate policies, and prevention and intervention programs to ameliorate the effects of pandemics on mothers’ mental health. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-07-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8292718/ /pubmed/34305763 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.706120 Text en Copyright © 2021 Taylor, Frenzel, Johnson, Willett, White, Badura-Brack and Wilson. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Taylor, Brittany K.
Frenzel, Michaela R.
Johnson, Hallie J.
Willett, Madelyn P.
White, Stuart F.
Badura-Brack, Amy S.
Wilson, Tony W.
Increases in Stressors Prior to-Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Are Associated With Depression Among Middle-Aged Mothers
title Increases in Stressors Prior to-Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Are Associated With Depression Among Middle-Aged Mothers
title_full Increases in Stressors Prior to-Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Are Associated With Depression Among Middle-Aged Mothers
title_fullStr Increases in Stressors Prior to-Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Are Associated With Depression Among Middle-Aged Mothers
title_full_unstemmed Increases in Stressors Prior to-Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Are Associated With Depression Among Middle-Aged Mothers
title_short Increases in Stressors Prior to-Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Are Associated With Depression Among Middle-Aged Mothers
title_sort increases in stressors prior to-versus during the covid-19 pandemic in the united states are associated with depression among middle-aged mothers
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8292718/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34305763
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.706120
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