P409. Prenatal COVID-19 Related Stress, Maternal Emotion Regulation and Infant Temperament: Assessing the Developmental Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Section snippets
Background
Expectant mothers are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It is critical, therefore, that we examine the impact of this stressful perinatal period on infants’ development, growth, and emotional functioning.
Methods
We collected data from women (N= 295) over two time periods: once while they were pregnant (T1), and again at approximately one year postpartum (T2). At T1, participants reported on their levels of stress related to COVID-19, including the overall impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on their daily life, and on their emotion regulation. At T2, participants reported on their infant’s temperament.
Results
We conducted a hierarchical multiple regression predicting infant negative affect. In the first step, race, education, age, and income explained 6.3% of the variance in infant negative affect (F(10,268)=1.825, p=.058). In the second step, maternal emotion regulation explained an additional 1.3% of the variance in infant negative affect (F(1,267)=3.87, p=.050, β=.118). Adding mothers’ reported impact of COVID-19 to the model explained an additional 1.8% of the variance in infant negative affect
Conclusions
Our findings indicate that COVID-19-related stress is associated with infant negative affect more strongly than is maternal emotion regulation style. These findings underscore the importance of continuing to monitor pregnant women's levels of stress and distress during times of crisis in order to safeguard and mitigate against sub-optimal developmental trajectories of infant functioning.
Supported By
NIH
Keywords
Child Development, Prenatal Maternal Stress, COVID-19 Pandemic, Infant Temperament, Emotion Regulation