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Changes in Mental Health during Three Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia: Neurotypical Children versus Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents

The main goal of our research was to monitor changes in the mental health of Slovak families with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to families with neurotypical children during three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on the prevalence of depression, anxiety, stress and...

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Autores principales: Polónyiová, Katarína, Rašková, Barbara, Ostatníková, Daniela
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9565628/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231151
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911849
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author Polónyiová, Katarína
Rašková, Barbara
Ostatníková, Daniela
author_facet Polónyiová, Katarína
Rašková, Barbara
Ostatníková, Daniela
author_sort Polónyiová, Katarína
collection PubMed
description The main goal of our research was to monitor changes in the mental health of Slovak families with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to families with neurotypical children during three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on the prevalence of depression, anxiety, stress and different stressors of parents. In children, we explored maladaptive behavior and the availability of interventions for children with ASD. The data were collected using an extensive questionnaire including the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-42 questionnaire (DASS-42) and two subscales of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS-3). The research sample consisted of a total of 506 parents, 236 of whom have a child with ASD. Parents of children with ASD reported elevated anxiety during the first wave, while changes were found in parents of neurotypical children. During the second wave, the prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress experienced by parents in both groups increased, but significantly more in parents with ASD children. The internalizing maladaptive behavior of children with ASD also increased. During the third wave, no significant differences between the groups of parents were found in stress and anxiety, but parents of ASD children scored higher in depression. Externalized maladaptive behavior of neurotypical children increased, with minimal changes in children with ASD, which can be explained by the improved therapy availability for children with ASD, also observed in our study.
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spelling pubmed-95656282022-10-15 Changes in Mental Health during Three Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia: Neurotypical Children versus Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents Polónyiová, Katarína Rašková, Barbara Ostatníková, Daniela Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The main goal of our research was to monitor changes in the mental health of Slovak families with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to families with neurotypical children during three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on the prevalence of depression, anxiety, stress and different stressors of parents. In children, we explored maladaptive behavior and the availability of interventions for children with ASD. The data were collected using an extensive questionnaire including the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-42 questionnaire (DASS-42) and two subscales of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS-3). The research sample consisted of a total of 506 parents, 236 of whom have a child with ASD. Parents of children with ASD reported elevated anxiety during the first wave, while changes were found in parents of neurotypical children. During the second wave, the prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress experienced by parents in both groups increased, but significantly more in parents with ASD children. The internalizing maladaptive behavior of children with ASD also increased. During the third wave, no significant differences between the groups of parents were found in stress and anxiety, but parents of ASD children scored higher in depression. Externalized maladaptive behavior of neurotypical children increased, with minimal changes in children with ASD, which can be explained by the improved therapy availability for children with ASD, also observed in our study. MDPI 2022-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9565628/ /pubmed/36231151 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911849 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Polónyiová, Katarína
Rašková, Barbara
Ostatníková, Daniela
Changes in Mental Health during Three Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia: Neurotypical Children versus Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents
title Changes in Mental Health during Three Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia: Neurotypical Children versus Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents
title_full Changes in Mental Health during Three Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia: Neurotypical Children versus Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents
title_fullStr Changes in Mental Health during Three Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia: Neurotypical Children versus Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents
title_full_unstemmed Changes in Mental Health during Three Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia: Neurotypical Children versus Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents
title_short Changes in Mental Health during Three Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia: Neurotypical Children versus Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents
title_sort changes in mental health during three waves of the covid-19 pandemic in slovakia: neurotypical children versus children with autism spectrum disorder and their parents
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9565628/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231151
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911849
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