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 Oct 21;18(21):11066.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph182111066.

Distress Levels of Parents of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison between Italy and Australia

Dayle Burnett  1 , Anne Masi  2 , Antonio Mendoza Diaz  2   3 , Renata Rizzo  4 , Ping-I Lin  2   5 , Valsamma Eapen  2   3
Affiliations

Distress Levels of Parents of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison between Italy and Australia

Dayle Burnett et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Parents of children with a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) report higher levels of distress compared to those of typically developing children. Distress levels may be heightened by the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is unclear whether distress levels of parents varied by the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorder in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to investigate whether parental distress was influenced by the type of NDD. Participants were from Australia (N = 196) and Italy (N = 200); the parents of children aged 3-18 were invited to complete an online self-reported survey which included the 6-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) to determine parental distress. The results show that intellectual or learning disorder (ILD) is a major contributor to parental distress compared to other NDDs in both Australia and Italy. Moreover, the worsening of symptomatic changes in children with NDDs was significantly associated with parental distress. The differences between the two countries in terms of the pandemic impact, however, were not statistically significant. The results suggest that intervention strategies need to be tailored for individual clinical information and factor in the society's stringency level of anti-contagion policies to improve parental wellbeing.

Keywords: COVID-19; neurodevelopmental disorder; pandemic; parental distress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proportions in the variation in parental stress explained by the child’s NDD diagnosis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Parental distress levels stratified by the child’s diagnosis and country. Vertical bars (red and blue bars indicate Italian and Australian samples, respectively) refer to the 95% CIs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparing the effects of symptomatic change of NDDs on parental distress between Italy and Australia. SASD indicates the symptomatic change for ASD; SILD indicates the symptomatic change for ILD; SOCD indicates the symptomatic change for OCD; STS indicates the symptomatic change for TS. Lower K6_sum scores indicate higher distress levels. Higher scores in the symptomatic change indicate worsening of symptoms during the pandemic.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Luo M., Guo L., Yu M., Jiang W., Wang H. The psychological and mental impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on medical staff and general public—A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Res. 2020;291:113190. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113190. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adams E.L., Smith D., Caccavale L.J., Bean M.K. Parents Are Stressed! Patterns of Parent Stress Across COVID-19. Front. Psychiatry. 2021;12:626456. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.626456. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Petrocchi S., Levante A., Bianco F., Castelli I., Lecciso F. Maternal Distress/Coping and Children’s Adaptive Behaviors During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Mediation Through Children’s Emotional Experience. Front. Public Health. 2020;8:587833. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.587833. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. COVID-19, Employment Stress and Student Vulnerability in Australia/VU Research Repository/Victoria University/Melbourne Australia. [(accessed on 14 August 2021)]. Available online: https://vuir.vu.edu.au/40603/
    1. Parolin Z. Unemployment and child health during COVID-19 in the USA. Lancet Public Health. 2020;5:e521–e522. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30207-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed