Parental psychological distress associated with covıd-19 outbreak: a large-scale multicenter survey from turkey

Parental psychological distress associated with COVID-19 outbreak: A large-scale multicenter survey from Turkey

Alperen Bıkmazer 1, Muhammed Tayyib Kadak 2, Vahdet Görmez 1, Uğur Doğan 3, Zeynep Dilara Aslankaya 1, Fulya Bakır 1, Mahmut Cem Tarakçıoğlu 4, İlyas Kaya 5, Yusuf Yasin Gümüş 6, İbrahim Selçuk Esin 7, Ali Karayağmurlu 5, İbrahim Adak 8, Ferhat Yaylacı 9, Barış Güller 9, Yaşar Tanır 5, Zehra Koyuncu 2, Nihal Serdengeçti 2, Çağatay Ermiş 10, Gül Bilgin Kaçmaz 6, Hatice Gülşen 6, Hicran Doğru 7, Mohammed Al Bayati 8, Büşra Üstündağ 8, Enes Gökler 11, Gonca Özyurt 12, Burak Baykara 10, Özalp Ekinci 8, Şaziye Senem Başgül 13, Aynur Görmez 14, Neslihan İnal Emiroğlu 10, Hakan Türkçapar 15, Mücahit Öztürk 16

Affiliations expand

PMID: 33148091

DOI: 10.1177/0020764020970240

Abstract

Aims: Pandemics can cause substantial psychological distress; however, we do not know the impact of the COVID-19 related lockdown and mental health burden on the parents of school age children. We aimed to comparatively examine the COVID-19 related the stress and psychological burden of the parents with different occupational, locational, and mental health status related backgrounds.

Methods: A large-scale multicenter online survey was completed by the parents (n = 3,278) of children aged 6 to 18 years, parents with different occupational (health care workers-HCW [18.2%] vs. others), geographical (İstanbul [38.2%] vs. others), and psychiatric (child with a mental disorder [37.8%]) backgrounds.

Results: Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that being a HCW parent (odds ratio 1.79, p < .001), a mother (odds ratio 1.67, p < .001), and a younger parent (odds ratio 0.98, p = .012); living with an adult with a chronic physical illness (odds ratio 1.38, p < .001), having an acquaintance diagnosed with COVID-19 (odds ratio 1.22, p = .043), positive psychiatric history (odds ratio 1.29, p < .001), and living with a child with moderate or high emotional distress (odds ratio 1.29, p < .001; vs. odds ratio 2.61, p < .001) were independently associated with significant parental distress.

Conclusions: Parents report significant psychological distress associated with COVID-19 pandemic and further research is needed to investigate its wider impact including on the whole family unit.

Keywords: COVID 19; children; mental health; pandemic; parent.