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Pandemic-related Stress and Access to Caregivers and Healthcare Among Parents-to-be

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Journal of Child and Family Studies
Authors:
Olivia Veira
Olivia Veira
Olivia Veira
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Shreya Bhise
Shreya Bhise
Shreya Bhise
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Nicolette Stelter
Nicolette Stelter
Nicolette Stelter
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Kathryn Van Eck at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health
Kathryn Van Eck
  • Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health
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Abstract

Few studies have examined the pandemic’s impact on both parents-to-be. Our study examined parents’-to-be pandemic-related stress, correlates of pandemic-related stress, and dyadic agreement on pandemic-related stress and its impact. Participants consisted of 74 parent-to-be dyads recruited from a larger text-messaging intervention of fathers-to-be with lower education from February 2020 to February 2022 before their partner was 25 weeks gestation from one mid-Atlantic U.S. city. Our baseline cross-sectional data assessed parents’ pandemic-related stress, perceived pandemic-related impact on infant interactions, help with infant care by caregivers, access to health care, concerns about finances, and participants’ background characteristics. We compared perceived pandemic-related stress and impact within dyads. Separate multivariate linear regressions explored factors associated with pandemic-related stress without and with adjustment for participants’ characteristics stratified by fathers- and mothers-to be. Our findings showed overall low levels of pandemic-related stress, with fathers-to-be within dyads reporting lower levels of pandemic-related stress than reported by mothers-to-be. We found differential factors were associated with greater pandemic-related stress for fathers- than mothers-to-be, except that for both parents greater pandemic-related stress was associated with greater concerns about being able to interact with their own infant and getting infant care help from the mothers’ parents. Whereas greater pandemic-related stress for mothers-to-be was associated with only concerns about getting infant care help, greater stress for fathers-to-be was associated with concerns about getting infant care help and accessing health care. Findings have implications for better understanding expectant parents’ differential response to stressful events that may be informed by gender role expectations during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Clinical Trial Registry and Registration number. Not applicable for the current data presented.
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Journal of Child and Family Studies
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-024-02966-0
ORIGINAL PAPER
Pandemic-related Stress and Access to Caregivers and Healthcare
Among Parents-to-be
Olivia Veira1●Shreya Bhise1●Nicolette Stelter2●Kathryn Van Eck1,3 ●Sara B. Johnson1,4 ●Tim Nelson5●
Alain B. Labrique4●Sara Skelton1●Dustin G. Gibson4●Arik V. Marcell 1,4
Accepted: 24 November 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025
Abstract
Few studies have examined the pandemic’s impact on both parents-to-be. Our study examined parents’-to-be pandemic-
related stress, correlates of pandemic-related stress, and dyadic agreement on pandemic-related stress and its impact.
Participants consisted of 74 parent-to-be dyads recruited from a larger text-messaging intervention of fathers-to-be with
lower education from February 2020 to February 2022 before their partner was 25 weeks gestation from one mid-Atlantic
U.S. city. Our baseline cross-sectional data assessed parents’pandemic-related stress, perceived pandemic-related impact
on infant interactions, help with infant care by caregivers, access to health care, concerns about finances, and participants’
background characteristics. We compared perceived pandemic-related stress and impact within dyads. Separate
multivariate linear regressions explored factors associated with pandemic-related stress without and with adjustment for
participants’characteristics stratified by fathers- and mothers-to be. Our findings showed overall low levels of pandemic-
related stress, with fathers-to-be within dyads reporting lower levels of pandemic-related stress than reported by mothers-
to-be. We found differential factors were associated with greater pandemic-related stress for fathers- than mothers-to-be,
except that for both parents greater pandemic-related stress was associated with greater concerns about being able to
interact with their own infant and getting infant care help from the mothers’parents. Whereas greater pandemic-related
stress for mothers-to-be was associated with only concerns about getting infant care help, greater stress for fathers-to-be
was associated with concerns about getting infant care help and accessing health care. Findings have implications for
better understanding expectant parents’differential response to stressful events that may be informed by gender role
expectations during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Clinical Trial Registry and Registration number. Not
applicable for the current data presented.
Keywords Expectant father ●Expectant mother ●Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) ●Caregiving
Highlights
●Few studies have examined the pandemic’s impact on fathers-to-be.
●Our study showed within dyads fathers-to-be reported lower pandemic-related stress than reported by their partners.
●For both parents-to-be, greater pandemic-related stress was associated with concerns about getting infant care help from
mothers’parents.
●Findings highlight the need to better understand differential stressors during the perinatal period for mothers- and fathers-
to-be.
*Arik V. Marcell
amarcell@jhu.edu
1Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD,
USA
2Sinai Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
3Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA
4Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Baltimore, MD, USA
5Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
1234567890();,:
1234567890();,:
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