Thursday, March 13, 2025 3/13/2025

Prenatal Social Connection and Disruption During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Maternal and Infant Health

Award Number: R01HD104801
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

Group Awards By:

View Award Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY The COVID-19 pandemic has had sweeping effects on pregnant women and their partners. The need to adhere to social distancing guidelines has altered the social connectedness of expectant parents, with effects on stress, loneliness, reduced access to in- person prenatal care, and childbirth support. Social support during pregnancy is known to buffer stress and predict better postpartum outcomes for both new parents and their infants. For example, greater prenatal support has been linked with decreased risk of parental postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, lower incidence of preterm birth and low birth weight, calmer infant temperament, and healthier infant development. Given this evidence, pandemic-induced changes to social connectedness during pregnancy may have long-term effects for new parents and their children. The current proposal leverages the unique natural experiment of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine the maternal and infant health effects of social connectedness among pregnant women and their partners. The CHIRP (Coronavirus, Health, Isolation and Resilience in Pregnancy) study launched in spring 2020 and has enrolled 710 expectant parents who reported on their feelings of social connectedness and support during pregnancy. We will follow up with this cohort three, six, and 12 months after the birth of their child. In addition to collecting self-report data, we will gather hospital birth charts to measure gestational outcomes, and hair cortisol to measure neuroendocrine stress exposure. We also plan to use geocoding to model the social, economic, and health impacts of the pandemic and explore how these impacts shape postpartum outcomes. Our lab has already collected data from another cohort of 200 expectant parents recruited during pregnancy and followed over the transition to parenthood, constituting a pre-pandemic comparison sample with the same measures and timing. We will also conduct a five-year follow-up with children from our pre-pandemic dataset that will incorporate behavioral and neuroimaging measures of neurodevelopment. Our pilot data indicates significantly higher ratings of psychological distress and lower ratings of social support among expectant parents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect that this project will make important contributions to the study of stress and resilience during pregnancy and its long-term effects on both maternal and infant well-being.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $410,830 )
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90033	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	001	5	1/23/2025	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$97,107
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90033	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	5	1/22/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$313,723
														Subtotal = $410,830

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $509,014 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90033	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	004	4	9/13/2024	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$9,736
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90033	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	003	4	9/5/2024	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$48,837
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90089	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	4	2/28/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$320,976
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90089	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	002	4	6/13/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$32,097
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90089	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	001	4	2/29/2024	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$97,368
														Subtotal = $509,014

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $469,358 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST	LOS ANGELES	CA	90089	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	001	3	3/9/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$108,186
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST	LOS ANGELES	CA	90089	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	3	2/21/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$361,172
														Subtotal = $469,358

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $354,750 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90007	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	001	2	5/30/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$35,475
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90007	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	2	2/25/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$319,275
														Subtotal = $354,750

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $361,172 )
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3	LOS ANGELES	CA	90007	LOS ANGELES	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	1	5/30/2021	NEW	$361,172
														Subtotal = $361,172

Grand Total All Awards = $2,105,124

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Prenatal Social Connection and Disruption During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Maternal and Infant Health

Award Number: R01HD104801

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer