COVID-19 Pandemic
Economic Context, Schooling Modality, and Mental Health in U.S. Adults Living with Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic Catherine Ettman* Catherine Ettman Elena Badillo Goicoechea Elizabeth A. Stuart
The COVID-19 pandemic upended contexts for families; relatively little work has studied the influence of pandemic-era context on the mental health of adults living with children. We aimed to assess the relation between economic context and schooling modality with the mental health of adults living with school-age children during the pandemic. Using a large, national sample from the COVID-19 Trends and Impact Surveys collected in partnership with Meta (CTIS; N=1,485,072 responses from November 2020 through June 2022), the sample included over one million responses from adults living with children under the age of 18 years old during the COVID-19 pandemic who were active Facebook users. We used weighted multiple logistic regression to estimate the association of frequent feelings of depression and anxiety, respectively, with economic context and schooling modality, controlling for demographics, state, and COVID-protective behaviors (e.g., mask wearing). We found that financial worry was most strongly associated with reporting frequent feelings of depression and anxiety across all time periods, and the association significantly increased over time (p<0.001) from aOR 2.25 (95%CI 2.19, 2.32)/aOR 2.63 (95%CI 2.54, 2.73) in Fall 2020 to aOR 3.11 (95%CI 3.01, 3.22)/aOR 3.79 (95%CI 3.64, 3.95) in Spring 2022 for anxiety and depression symptoms, respectively. Living with children in fully online schooling (vs. fully in-person schooling) was associated with worse mental health in all study periods, increasing from aOR 1.08 (1.05, 1.11)/aOR 1.06 (1.02, 1.10) in Fall 2020 to aOR 1.20 (1.10, 1.32)/aOR 1.28 (1.16, 1.42) in Spring 2022 for anxiety and depression symptoms, respectively. Financial worry and schooling modality were associated with mental health of adults living with children in the household during the COVID-19 pandemic and the strength of the association grew over time. These findings suggest a need to focus on economic context of families during largescale events. Future policy decisions around schooling modality–or of how to support families and communities during periods of school closure–may consider parental mental health an additional factor worth weighing.
