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Mental Health Help-Seeking in Parents and Trajectories of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms: Lessons Learned From the Ontario Parent Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Tracking parents’ mental health symptoms and understanding barriers to seeking professional help are critical for determining policies and services to support families’ well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed enormous challenges to parents’ mental health and the access to professional help, and...

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Autores principales: Zhang, Xutong, Jambon, Marc, Afifi, Tracie O., Atkinson, Leslie, Bennett, Teresa, Duku, Eric, Duncan, Laura, Joshi, Divya, Kimber, Melissa, MacMillan, Harriet L., Gonzalez, Andrea
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9243663/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35783808
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.884591
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author Zhang, Xutong
Jambon, Marc
Afifi, Tracie O.
Atkinson, Leslie
Bennett, Teresa
Duku, Eric
Duncan, Laura
Joshi, Divya
Kimber, Melissa
MacMillan, Harriet L.
Gonzalez, Andrea
author_facet Zhang, Xutong
Jambon, Marc
Afifi, Tracie O.
Atkinson, Leslie
Bennett, Teresa
Duku, Eric
Duncan, Laura
Joshi, Divya
Kimber, Melissa
MacMillan, Harriet L.
Gonzalez, Andrea
author_sort Zhang, Xutong
collection PubMed
description Tracking parents’ mental health symptoms and understanding barriers to seeking professional help are critical for determining policies and services to support families’ well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed enormous challenges to parents’ mental health and the access to professional help, and there are important public health lessons that must be learned from the past 2 years’ experiences to inform future mental health responses to social- and family-level stressful events. This study examines the trajectories of parents’ depressive and anxiety symptoms over a year during the pandemic as related to their mental health help-seeking. Data were collected from a sample of parents residing in Ontario, Canada at baseline (May–June, 2020; Wave 1) and again 1 year later (Wave 2; referred to as W1 and W2 below). Parents (n = 2,439; M(age) = 39.47, SD = 6.65; 95.0% females) reported their depressive and anxiety symptoms at both waves. Mental health help-seeking, including self-reported contact with professional help and perceived unmet mental health needs, was measured at W2. Parents were classified into four groups by mental health help-seeking. Inconsistent seekers and non-seeking needers, both reporting perceived unmet needs for professional help, showed greater increases in depressive and anxiety symptoms, whereas parents with no need or needs met showed smaller increases in depressive symptoms and decreases in anxiety symptoms. Belief in self-reliance and time constraints were the leading reasons for not seeking help. These findings suggest that over a year into the pandemic, parents with perceived unmet mental health needs were at greater risk for worsening depressive and anxiety symptoms. Recognizing the demands for mental health services when families experience chronic stressors and targeting the identified barriers may promote family well-being during and beyond this pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-92436632022-07-01 Mental Health Help-Seeking in Parents and Trajectories of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms: Lessons Learned From the Ontario Parent Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic Zhang, Xutong Jambon, Marc Afifi, Tracie O. Atkinson, Leslie Bennett, Teresa Duku, Eric Duncan, Laura Joshi, Divya Kimber, Melissa MacMillan, Harriet L. Gonzalez, Andrea Front Psychol Psychology Tracking parents’ mental health symptoms and understanding barriers to seeking professional help are critical for determining policies and services to support families’ well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed enormous challenges to parents’ mental health and the access to professional help, and there are important public health lessons that must be learned from the past 2 years’ experiences to inform future mental health responses to social- and family-level stressful events. This study examines the trajectories of parents’ depressive and anxiety symptoms over a year during the pandemic as related to their mental health help-seeking. Data were collected from a sample of parents residing in Ontario, Canada at baseline (May–June, 2020; Wave 1) and again 1 year later (Wave 2; referred to as W1 and W2 below). Parents (n = 2,439; M(age) = 39.47, SD = 6.65; 95.0% females) reported their depressive and anxiety symptoms at both waves. Mental health help-seeking, including self-reported contact with professional help and perceived unmet mental health needs, was measured at W2. Parents were classified into four groups by mental health help-seeking. Inconsistent seekers and non-seeking needers, both reporting perceived unmet needs for professional help, showed greater increases in depressive and anxiety symptoms, whereas parents with no need or needs met showed smaller increases in depressive symptoms and decreases in anxiety symptoms. Belief in self-reliance and time constraints were the leading reasons for not seeking help. These findings suggest that over a year into the pandemic, parents with perceived unmet mental health needs were at greater risk for worsening depressive and anxiety symptoms. Recognizing the demands for mental health services when families experience chronic stressors and targeting the identified barriers may promote family well-being during and beyond this pandemic. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9243663/ /pubmed/35783808 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.884591 Text en Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Jambon, Afifi, Atkinson, Bennett, Duku, Duncan, Joshi, Kimber, MacMillan and Gonzalez. 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
Zhang, Xutong
Jambon, Marc
Afifi, Tracie O.
Atkinson, Leslie
Bennett, Teresa
Duku, Eric
Duncan, Laura
Joshi, Divya
Kimber, Melissa
MacMillan, Harriet L.
Gonzalez, Andrea
Mental Health Help-Seeking in Parents and Trajectories of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms: Lessons Learned From the Ontario Parent Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Mental Health Help-Seeking in Parents and Trajectories of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms: Lessons Learned From the Ontario Parent Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Mental Health Help-Seeking in Parents and Trajectories of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms: Lessons Learned From the Ontario Parent Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Mental Health Help-Seeking in Parents and Trajectories of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms: Lessons Learned From the Ontario Parent Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Mental Health Help-Seeking in Parents and Trajectories of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms: Lessons Learned From the Ontario Parent Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Mental Health Help-Seeking in Parents and Trajectories of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms: Lessons Learned From the Ontario Parent Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort mental health help-seeking in parents and trajectories of depressive and anxiety symptoms: lessons learned from the ontario parent survey during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9243663/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35783808
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.884591
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