Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Sep;30(9):1401-1412.
doi: 10.1007/s00787-020-01631-3. Epub 2020 Aug 31.

The interplay between mothers' and children behavioral and psychological factors during COVID-19: an Italian study

Elisa Di Giorgio  1 , Daniela Di Riso  2 , Giovanna Mioni  3 , Nicola Cellini  3   4   5   6
Affiliations

The interplay between mothers' and children behavioral and psychological factors during COVID-19: an Italian study

Elisa Di Giorgio et al. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

Italy has been the first nation outside of Asia to face the COVID-19 outbreak. To limit viral transmission of infection, by March 10th, 2020, the Italian Government has ordered a national lockdown, which established home confinement, home (smart) working, and temporary closure of non-essential businesses and schools. The present study investigated how these restrictive measures impacted mothers and their pre-school children's behavioral habits (i.e., sleep timing and quality, subjective time experience) and psychological well-being (i.e., emotion regulation, self-regulation capacity). An online survey was administered to 245 mothers with pre-school children (from 2 to 5 years). Mothers were asked to fill the survey thinking both on their habits, behaviors, and emotions and on those of their children during the quarantine, and retrospectively, before the national lockdown (i.e., in late February). A general worsening of sleep quality and distortion of time experience in both mothers and children, as well as increasing emotional symptoms and self-regulation difficulties in children, was observed. Moreover, even when the interplay between the behavioral and psychological factors was investigated, the factor that seems to mostly impact both mothers' and children's psychological well-being was their sleep quality. Overall, central institutions urgently need to implementing special programs for families, including not only psychological support to sustain families with working parents and ameliorating children's management.

Keywords: COVID-19 outbreak; Home confinement; Mothers and children; Work condition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Changes in mothers’ a sleep quality (PSQI total score), b bedtime, c waketime, and d time experience as a function of the presence of the lockdown and the mothers’ working condition. For panel a, the dashed line represents the cut-off for identifying good (PSQI ≤ 5) and poor sleepers (PSQI > 5). Error bars represent standard errors
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Changes in children’s a bedtime, b waketime, c inhibitory self-control (ISCI), and d SDQ subscales as a function of the presence of the lockdown and the mothers’ working condition. For panel EMO emotional symptoms subscale, CON conduct problems subscale, HYP hyperactivity/inattention subscale. Error bars represent standard errors
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Relationship between changes in children and mother a sleep quality (ΔSDCQ and ΔPSQI respectively), b bedtime, and c waketime. Note that higher scores in ΔSDCQ and ΔPSQI indicate lower sleep quality during lockdown compared to the period before the lockdown
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization . WHO Director-General’s statement on IHR Emergency Committee on Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Geneva: WHO; 2020.
    1. Brooks SK, Webster RK, Smith LE, Woodland L, Wessely S, Greenberg N, Rubin G. The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. Lancet. 2020;395:912–920. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hawryluck L, Gold WL, Robinson S, Pogorski S, Galea S, Styra R. SARS control and psychological effects of quarantine, Toronto, Canada. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004;10(7):1206. doi: 10.3201/eid1007.030703. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Liu X, Kakade M, Fuller CJ, et al. Depression after exposure to stressful events: lessons learned from the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic. Compr Psychiatry. 2012;53:15–23. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2011.02.003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yoon MK, Kim SY, Ko HS, Lee MS. System effectiveness of detection, brief intervention and refer to treatment for the people with post-traumatic emotional distress by MERS: a case report of community-based proactive intervention in South Korea. Int J Ment Health Syst. 2016;10:51. doi: 10.1186/s13033-016-0083-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed