Impact of COVID-19 on maternal health and child care behavior: Evidence from a quasi-experimental study of vulnerable communities in Boa Vista, Brazil. (July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Loss, Georg; Fink, Günther; Bessa, Luana; Brentani, Alexandra
• Is Part Of: Child abuse & neglect. Volume 129(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- Home environment -- Parenting -- Child development -- Brazil -- Longitudinal; Child abuse -- Periodicals; 362.76
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105667
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0145-2134

Abstract

Abstract: Background: COVID-19 related distress has been shown to have negative associations with family well-being. Objectives: To determine the immediate impact of acute COVID-19 infection on maternal well-being and parenting practices among Brazilian families. Participants and setting: We studied 2′579 mothers (29′913 observations) of young children from vulnerable neighborhoods in Boa Vista, Brazil over 12 months. Methods: We monitored family health and caregiving behavior including the incidence of COVID-19 infections in the surveyed households through bi-weekly phone interviews over 50 weeks, from June 2020 to May 2021. Primary outcomes were home-based child stimulation, positive parenting behavior, and parenting stress. We used fixed effects panel regressions to estimate the impact of household COVID-19 infections on parenting outcomes. Results: Over the study period, 441 participants (17.1%; 831 (3.0%) observations) reported at least 1 positive COVID-19 infection in their household. Household COVID-19 infections significantly reduced home-based stimulation by 0.10 SDs (95%CI: −0.18, −0.01), positive parenting behaviors by 0.14 SDs (−0.21, −0.01), and increased parenting stress by 0.07 SDs (0.02, 0.12). The impact on home-based stimulation was most pronounced when the mother herself had a COVID-19 infection (−0.16; −0.29, −0.04). Parenting stress responded most strongly to mother or child COVID-19 infections. Effects were relatively short-lived, only children's infections' on parental stress was still detectable 2 weeks after initial infection. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that COVID-19 infections cause substantial disruptions in children's home environments - additional short-term support for families with acute infections could attenuate the negative impact on children's home environment during the pandemic.