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. 2023 May-Jun:86:101517.
doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2023.101517. Epub 2023 Feb 2.

Maternal anxiety, exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic and socioemotional development of offspring

Hernán López-Morales  1   2   3   4 , Macarena Verónica Del-Valle  1   2   3 , Marcela Carolina López  1   2   3 , María Laura Andrés  1   2   3 , Matías Jonás García  1   2   3 , Lorena Canet-Juric  1   2   3 , Sebastián Urquijo  1   2   3
Affiliations

Maternal anxiety, exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic and socioemotional development of offspring

Hernán López-Morales et al. J Appl Dev Psychol. 2023 May-Jun.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic context may predispose mothers to increased maternal psychopathology, which may be associated with offspring socioemotional development. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between prenatal anxiety and depression and exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic with offspring socioemotional development, controlling for postnatal anxiety and depression. A total of 105 mother-child dyads were assessed in pre- and postnatal periods. Questionnaires were used to assess the impact of the pandemic, indicators of psychopathology, and the socioemotional development of the offspring. Results suggest that negative pandemic experiences are indirectly associated with offspring socioemotional development via prenatal maternal anxiety symptomatology and after controlling for postnatal anxiety and depression. These indicators predispose to emotional deficits and increase the risks of psychopathological and neurodevelopmental disorders. It is important to adopt health policies that provide timely assessment of development in early childhood to reduce the risks associated with these deficits.

Keywords: COVID-19; Prenatal anxiety; Prenatal depression; Socioemotional development.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Longitudinal design of the study.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Statistical diagram of the serial mediation models used to test the influence of prenatal anxiety (model 1) and prenatal depression (model 2) on the association between negative pandemic experiences and socioemotional development of six-month-old babies. Note. Path values represent standardized regression coefficients. The c value corresponds to the total effect of COVID-19 negative experiences on child socioemotional development. The c’ value represents the direct effect of negative pandemic experiences on socioemotional development. Postpartum anxiety and depression, as well as maternal education and parity were included as covariates in the models. For the sake of simplicity, these covariates are not shown in the figure. * p < .05 / ** p < .01.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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