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Mothers’ mental health challenges predated the COVID-19 pandemic
Mothers’ mental health challenges predated the COVID-19 pandemic
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Urban Institute research report
- Author(s):
- Haley, Jennifer M., author
McMorrow, Stacey, author
Long, Julia, (Of Urban Institute), author - Contributor(s):
- Health Policy Center (Urban Institute), issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, January 2023
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Equity -- economics
Health Policy
Mental Health -- statistics & numerical data
Mothers -- psychology
Socioeconomic Factors
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially challenging for American families with children. The US Surgeon General as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association declared a children’s mental health crisis in late 2021, citing school closures, social isolation, grief over lost community and family members, and challenges accessing needed care as contributing factors. Parents, and especially mothers, have also borne significant caregiving, health, and health care access burdens that likely contributed to observed increases in mental health challenges since the pandemic began. Importantly, however, women and mothers were already facing significant mental health challenges before the pandemic, and those challenges are likely to persist and evolve as the most acute pandemic stressors subside and new threats to women’s health and well-being arise. Moreover, maternal mental health has important implications for children, and understanding mental health challenges among mothers will be critical to addressing the mental health crisis among children. To better support the mental health and well-being of mothers and children in the aftermath of the pandemic, it is important to understand the patterns that existed before the crisis. In this report, we analyze national patterns of self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression among custodial mothers of children younger than 18. We use data from the 2019 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and self-reported measures based on the Washington Group on Disability Statistics Extended Set on Functioning, which asks about the frequency of feeling worried, nervous, anxious, or depressed and the intensity of those feelings the last time they were experienced. Following guidance from the Washington Group, we use the combined criteria of having such feelings daily at medium or high intensity or weekly at high intensity to identify groups we refer to as having moderate or severe anxiety and moderate or severe depression.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (iv, 35 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918591685106676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918591685106676