Prenatal to Preschool: The Impact of the Pandemic on Mothers and children, with a focus on syndemic effects on Black families - SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The emergence of the COVID-19 global pandemic has had significant impact on the health and well-being of
adults and children alike. In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fractures in many
systems including education, the economy, housing, and healthcare, widening known racial disparities. This is
of particular importance considering the criticality of the peripartum period on early neurodevelopment. Recent
findings suggest that early maternal symptomatology can have lasting, and negative effects on parent-child
interactions, infant/child development, and mental health of both women and children. Overall, these findings
take on further importance when contextualizing the disparate exposure of Black children and their families to
structural racism and the COIVD-19 pandemic. Although there is increasing knowledge of the impact of structural
racism on child development beginning prenatally, mechanisms underpinning this transmission are still being
investigated. Identifying women disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and endemic conditions
(syndemic) during the peripartum period, provides an opportunity to understand the developing child’s
environment, mother’s mental health, and parenting experience, with the long-term goal of improving
infant/young child neurodevelopmental and mental health outcomes by ensuring appropriate, precise, culturally-
informed interventions. The proposed multi-methods project consists of three aims that will longitudinally
examine child neurodevelopmental outcomes by early identification of racially/ethnically diverse mothers with
mental health challenges. The first aim implements extensive screening of postpartum Black and non-Latinx
White (NLW) mothers using a battery of questionnaires and clinical psychiatric interviews to identify mothers
currently experiencing distress and psychopathology, as well as determining resilience factors uncovering cross-
cultural differences that may exist. Fathers/secondary caregivers will also complete similar questionnaires
assessing levels of support. The second aim identifies maternal concern about their child’s development and
mental health at two developmental time points (24 and 48-months) and assesses mother/child interactions on
a series of dyadic tasks. The final aim consists of qualitative interviews with a sub-sample of Black women
characterizing the impact of the syndemic on their mental health, parenting practices, perceptions of their child’s
early development, and trust in the healthcare system. The overarching goal of this application is to deeply
characterize the experiences of women and children impacted by the syndemic, filling the gap in the research
by identifying specific maternal and environmental factors and mechanisms that critically influence early child
development and mental health and allowing for future intervention development.
