The changes in people's mental health have become one of the hot topics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents have been said to be among the most vulnerable groups in terms of the imposed anti-pandemic measures. The present paper analyzes the trends in mental health indicators in a sample of Slovak parents (N = 363) who participated in four waves of data collection over a year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic. The mental health indicators were represented by general levels of depression and anxiety as well as COVID-related stress and anxiety. While there were only minor changes in depression and anxiety, the dynamic in COVID-related stress and especially anxiety was more noteworthy. Besides some exceptions, the results hold even after controlling for the socioeconomic situation. The gender differences in the mental health trends were found to be negligible. Overall, we observed no substantial deterioration in the mental health indicators across the four waves of the study.

Department of Preschool and Elementary Education and Psychology Faculty of Education University of Presov Prešov Slovakia

Faculty of Arts Institute of Political Science University of Presov Prešov Slovakia

Faculty of Education Institute for Research and Development of Education Charles University Prague Czechia

Institute of Psychology Faculty of Arts University of Presov Prešov Slovakia

Institute of Social Sciences of the Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratislava Slovakia

Instytut Psychologii Wyższa Szkoła Humanitas Humanitas University Sosnowiec Poland

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Wu T, Jia X, Shi H, Niu J, Yin X, Xie J, et al. Prevalence of mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PubMed DOI PMC

Nochaiwong S, Ruengorn C, Thavorn K, Hutton B, Awiphan R, Phosuya C, et al. Global prevalence of mental health issues among the general population during the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PubMed DOI PMC

Gadermann AC, Thomson KC, Richardson CG, Gagné M, McAuliffe C, Hirani S, et al. Examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on family mental health in Canada: findings from a national cross-sectional study. PubMed DOI PMC

Adams EL, Smith D, Caccavale LJ, Bean MK. Parents are stressed! Patterns of parent stress across COVID-19. PubMed DOI PMC

Ananat E, Gassman-Pines A.

Park CL, Russell BS, Fendrich M, Finkelstein-Fox L, Hutchison M, Becker J. Americans’ COVID-19 stress, coping, and adherence to CDC guidelines. PubMed DOI PMC

Hyman M, Mark C, Imteaj A, Ghiaie H, Rezapour S, Sadri AM, et al. Data analytics to evaluate the impact of infectious disease on economy: case study of COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Sanchez DG, Parra NG, Ozden C, Rijkers B.

Shen M, Xiao Y, Yuan Y, Chen X, Li J. Perceived stress links income loss and urticaria activity during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Li J, Song Q, Peng C, Wu Y. COVID-19 pandemic and household liquidity constraints: Evidence from micro data. DOI

Mikolai J, Keenan K, Kulu H. Intersecting household-level health and socio-economic vulnerabilities and the COVID-19 crisis: an analysis from the UK. PubMed DOI PMC

OECD.

Buchel O, Fašungová L, Hábel B, Hlaváč M, Komadel J, Veselková M.

Ahrendt D, Mascherini M, Nivakoski S, Saìndor E.

Hudson CG. Socioeconomic status and mental illness: tests of the social causation and selection hypotheses. PubMed DOI

Wang JL, Schmitz N, Dewa CS. Socioeconomic status and the risk of major depression: the Canadian National Population Health Survey. PubMed DOI

Fryers T, Melzer D, Jenkins R. Social inequalities and the common mental disorders: a systematic review of the evidence. PubMed DOI

Businelle MS, Mills BA, Chartier KG, Kendzor DE, Reingle JM, Shuval K. Do stressful events account for the link between socioeconomic status and mental health? PubMed DOI PMC

Sasaki Y, Shobugawa Y, Nozaki I, Takagi D, Nagamine Y, Funato M, et al. Association between depressive symptoms and objective/subjective socioeconomic status among older adults of two regions in Myanmar. PubMed DOI PMC

Kerr ML, Rasmussen HF, Fanning KA, Braaten SM. Parenting during COVID-19: a study of parents’ experiences across gender and income levels. PubMed DOI PMC

Lim-Soh JW, Tan PL. Weathering the storm: longitudinal evidence on women’s changing family relationships during COVID-19. DOI

Gassman-Pines A, Ananat EO, Fitz-Henley J., II. COVID-19 and parent-child psychological well-being. PubMed DOI PMC

Cheng Z, Mendolia S, Paloyo AR, Savage DA, Tani M. Working parents, financial insecurity, and childcare: mental health in the time of COVID-19 in the UK. PubMed DOI PMC

Viola TW, Nunes ML. Social and environmental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children. PubMed DOI PMC

Orsini A, Corsi M, Pedrinelli V, Santangelo A, Bertelloni C, Dell’Oste V, et al. Post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in caregivers of children tested for COVID-19 in the acute phase of the Italian outbreak. PubMed DOI PMC

Meyer B, Zill A, Dilba D, Gerlach R, Schumann S. Employee psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: a longitudinal study of demands, resources, and exhaustion. PubMed DOI PMC

Adamson MM, Phillips A, Seenivasan S, Martinez J, Grewal H, Kang X, et al. International prevalence and correlates of psychological stress during the global COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Johnson MS, Skjerdingstad N, Ebrahimi OV, Hoffart A, Johnson SU. Parenting in a pandemic: parental stress, anxiety and depression among parents during the government-initiated physical distancing measures following the first wave of COVID-19. PubMed DOI

Achterberg M, Dobbelaar S, Boer OD, Crone EA. Perceived stress as mediator for longitudinal effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on wellbeing of parents and children. PubMed DOI PMC

Brown SM, Doom JR, Lechuga-Peña S, Watamura SE, Koppels T. Stress and parenting during the global COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Alonzo D, Popescu M, Zubaroglu Ioannides P. Mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on parents in high-risk, low income communities. PubMed DOI PMC

Lee SJ, Ward KP, Chang OD, Downing KM. Parenting activities and the transition to home-based education during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Spinelli M, Lionetti F, Pastore M, Fasolo M. Parents’ stress and children’s psychological problems in families facing the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. PubMed DOI PMC

Köhler-Dauner F, Clemens V, Lange S, Ziegenhain U, Fegert JM. Mothers’ daily perceived stress influences their children’s mental health during SARS-CoV-2-pandemic-an online survey. PubMed DOI PMC

Polónyiová K, Belica I, Celušáková H, Janšáková K, Kopčíková M, Szapuová Ž, et al. Comparing the impact of the first and second wave of COVID-19 lockdown on Slovak families with typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. PubMed DOI

Westrupp EM, Stokes MA, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz M, Berkowitz TS, Capic T, Khor S, et al. Subjective wellbeing in parents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. PubMed DOI PMC

Crasta D, Daks JS, Rogge RD. Modeling suicide risk among parents during the COVID-19 pandemic: psychological inflexibility exacerbates the impact of COVID-19 stressors on interpersonal risk factors for suicide. PubMed DOI PMC

Kubb C, Foran HM. Measuring COVID-19 related anxiety in parents: Psychometric comparison of four different inventories. PubMed DOI PMC

Calvano C, Engelke L, Di Bella J, Kindermann J, Renneberg B, Winter SM. Families in the COVID-19 pandemic: parental stress, parent mental health and the occurrence of adverse childhood experiences-results of a representative survey in Germany. PubMed DOI PMC

Russell BS, Tambling RR, Horton AL, Hutchison M, Tomkunas AJ. Clinically significant depression among parents during the COVID-19 pandemic: examining the protective role of family relationships. DOI

Liu CH, Smiley PA, Vicman JM, Wong GTF, Doan SN. The roles of life stress and preventive health behaviors on parent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI

National Health Information Center.

Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic.

Giatti L, Camelo L, do V, Rodrigues JF, de C, Barreto SM. Reliability of the macarthur scale of subjective social status – brazilian longitudinal study of adult health (ELSA-Brasil). PubMed DOI PMC

Hagenaars AJM, De Vos K, Zaidi A.

Rush AJ, Trivedi MH, Ibrahim HM, Carmody TJ, Arnow B, Klein DN, et al. The 16-Item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS), clinician rating (QIDS-C), and self-report (QIDS-SR): a psychometric evaluation in patients with chronic major depression. PubMed DOI

Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JBW, Löwe B. A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7: The GAD-7. PubMed DOI

McElroy E, Patalay P, Moltrecht B, Shevlin M, Shum A, Creswell C, et al. Demographic and health factors associated with pandemic anxiety in the context of COVID-19. PubMed DOI

Silva WAD, de Sampaio Brito TR, Pereira CR. COVID-19 anxiety scale (CAS): development and psychometric properties. PubMed DOI PMC

Yamada Y, Ćepulić D-B, Coll-Martín T, Debove S, Gautreau G, Han H, et al. COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey dataset on psychological and behavioural consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. PubMed DOI PMC

Rosseel Y. lavaan: AnRPackage for Structural Equation Modeling. DOI

Roy A, Singh AK, Mishra S, Chinnadurai A, Mitra A, Bakshi O. Mental health implications of COVID-19 pandemic and its response in India. PubMed DOI PMC

Fruehwirth JC, Biswas S, Perreira KM. The COVID-19 pandemic and mental health of first-year college students: examining the effect of COVID-19 stressors using longitudinal data. PubMed DOI PMC

Faisal RA, Jobe MC, Ahmed O, Sharker T. Mental health status, anxiety, and depression levels of Bangladeshi university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Wu S. Effects of pandemics-related uncertainty on household consumption: evidence from the cross-country data. PubMed DOI PMC

Fauci AS, Lane HC, Redfield RR. COVID-19 – navigating the uncharted. PubMed DOI PMC

O’Connor RC, Wetherall K, Cleare S, McClelland H, Melson AJ, Niedzwiedz CL, et al. Mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK COVID-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing study. PubMed DOI PMC

Aknin LB, De Neve J-E, Dunn EW, Fancourt DE, Goldberg E, Helliwell JF, et al. Mental health during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: a review and recommendations for moving forward. PubMed DOI PMC

Daly M, Robinson E. Anxiety reported by US adults in 2019 and during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: Population-based evidence from two nationally representative samples. PubMed DOI PMC

Stroebe W, vanDellen MR, Abakoumkin G, Lemay EP, Jr., Schiavone WM, Agostini M, et al. Politicization of COVID-19 health-protective behaviors in the United States: longitudinal and cross-national evidence. PubMed DOI PMC

Taylor S, Landry CA, Paluszek MM, Fergus TA, McKay D, Asmundson GJG. Development and initial validation of the COVID Stress Scales. PubMed DOI PMC

Han L, Zhan Y, Li W, Xu Y, Xu Y, Zhao J. Associations between the perceived severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, cyberchondria, depression, anxiety, stress, and lockdown experience: cross-sectional survey study. PubMed DOI PMC

Andersson O, Campos-Mercade P, Meier AN, Wengström E. Anticipation of COVID-19 vaccines reduces willingness to socially distance. PubMed DOI PMC

Hyland P, Shevlin M, McBride O, Murphy J, Karatzias T, Bentall RP, et al. Anxiety and depression in the Republic of Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI

Bueno-Notivol J, Gracia-García P, Olaya B, Lasheras I, López-Antón R, Santabárbara J. Prevalence of depression during the COVID-19 outbreak: a meta-analysis of community-based studies. PubMed DOI PMC

Perlis RH, Ognyanova K, Santillana M, Baum MA, Lazer D, Druckman J, et al. Association of acute symptoms of COVID-19 and symptoms of depression in adults. PubMed DOI PMC

Fancourt D, Steptoe A, Bu F. Trajectories of anxiety and depressive symptoms during enforced isolation due to COVID-19 in England: a longitudinal observational study. PubMed DOI PMC

Kwong ASF, Pearson RM, Adams MJ, Northstone K, Tilling K, Smith D, et al. Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in two longitudinal UK population cohorts. PubMed DOI PMC

Martin A, Partika A, Castle S, Horm D, Johnson AD. Tulsa Seed Study Team. Both sides of the screen: Predictors of parents’ and teachers’ depression and food insecurity during COVID-19-related distance learning. PubMed DOI PMC

Valero-Moreno S, Lacomba-Trejo L, Tamarit A, Pérez-Marín M, Montoya-Castilla I. Psycho-emotional adjustment in parents of adolescents: a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of the impact of the COVID pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Shevlin M, McBride O, Murphy J, Miller JG, Hartman TK, Levita L, et al. Anxiety, depression, traumatic stress and COVID-19-related anxiety in the UK general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Hampshire A, Trender W, Grant JE, Mirza MB, Moran R, Hellyer PJ, et al. Item-level analysis of mental health symptom trajectories during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: associations with age, sex and pre-existing psychiatric conditions. PubMed DOI PMC

Pappa S, Chen J, Barnett J, Chang A, Dong RK, Xu W, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia. PubMed DOI PMC

Robinson E, Sutin AR, Daly M, Jones A. A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal cohort studies comparing mental health before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. PubMed DOI PMC

Ransing R, Ramalho R, Orsolini L, Adiukwu F, Gonzalez-Diaz JM, Larnaout A, et al. Can COVID-19 related mental health issues be measured? PubMed DOI PMC

Graupensperger S, Calhoun BH, Patrick ME, Lee CM. Longitudinal effects of COVID-19-related stressors on young adults’ mental health and wellbeing. PubMed DOI PMC

Chandola T, Kumari M, Booker CL, Benzeval M. The mental health impact of COVID-19 and lockdown-related stressors among adults in the UK. PubMed DOI PMC

Asmundson GJG, Rachor G, Drakes DH, Boehme BAE, Paluszek MM, Taylor S. How does COVID stress vary across the anxiety-related disorders? Assessing factorial invariance and changes in COVID Stress Scale scores during the pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Kozlov M. Does Omicron hit kids harder? Scientists are trying to find out. PubMed DOI

Sprang G, Silman M. Posttraumatic stress disorder in parents and youth after health-related disasters. PubMed DOI

Hoebel J, Maske UE, Zeeb H, Lampert T. Social inequalities and depressive symptoms in adults: the role of objective and subjective socioeconomic status. PubMed DOI PMC

Wang Y, Kala MP, Jafar TH. Factors associated with psychological distress during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the predominantly general population: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PubMed DOI PMC

Bassuk EL, Beardslee WR. Depression in homeless mothers: addressing an unrecognized public health issue. PubMed DOI

McDonald A, Thompson AJ, Perzow SED, Joos C, Wadsworth ME. The protective roles of ethnic identity, social support, and coping on depression in low-income parents: a test of the adaptation to poverty-related stress model. PubMed DOI

Heeren A, Hanseeuw B, Cougnon L-A, Lits G. Excessive worrying as a central feature of anxiety during the first COVID-19 lockdown-phase in Belgium: insights from a network approach. PubMed DOI PMC

Wang J, Tang K, Feng K, Lin X, Lv W, Chen K, et al. Impact of temperature and relative humidity on the transmission of COVID-19: a modelling study in China and the United States. PubMed DOI PMC

Demongeot J, Flet-Berliac Y, Seligmann H. Temperature decreases spread parameters of the new covid-19 case dynamics. PubMed DOI PMC

Van de Velde S, Bracke P, Levecque K. Gender differences in depression in 23 European countries. cross-national variation in the gender gap in depression. PubMed DOI

American Psychological Association.

Entmacher J, Robbins KG, Vogtman J, Frohlich L.

Mercer RT. Becoming a mother versus maternal role attainment. PubMed DOI

Chatterjee SS, Barikar CM, Mukherjee A. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on pre-existing mental health problems. PubMed DOI PMC

Ettman CK, Abdalla SM, Cohen GH, Sampson L, Vivier PM, Galea S. Prevalence of depression symptoms in us adults before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Freeman A, Tyrovolas S, Koyanagi A, Chatterji S, Leonardi M, Ayuso-Mateos JL, et al. The role of socio-economic status in depression: results from the COURAGE (aging survey in Europe). PubMed DOI PMC

Southwick SM, Vythilingam M, Charney DS. The psychobiology of depression and resilience to stress: implications for prevention and treatment. PubMed DOI

Beehr TA, Farmer SJ, Glazer S, Gudanowski DM, Nair VN. The enigma of social support and occupational stress: source congruence and gender role effects. PubMed DOI

Sfendla A, Hadrya F. Factors associated with psychological distress and physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI

van der Werf ET, Busch M, Jong MC, Hoenders HJR. Lifestyle changes during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey in the Netherlands. PubMed DOI PMC

Luo M, Guo L, Yu M, Jiang W, Wang H. The psychological and mental impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on medical staff and general public – A systematic review and meta-analysis. PubMed DOI PMC

Salari N, Hosseinian-Far A, Jalali R, Vaisi-Raygani A, Rasoulpoor S, Mohammadi M, et al. Prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PubMed DOI PMC

Wang K, Goldenberg A, Dorison CA, Miller JK, Uusberg A, Lerner JS, et al. A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC

Hossain MM, Tasnim S, Sultana A, Faizah F, Mazumder H, Zou L, et al. Epidemiology of mental health problems in COVID-19: a review. PubMed DOI PMC

Kumar A, Nayar KR. COVID 19 and its mental health consequences. PubMed DOI

Pfefferbaum B, North CS. Mental health and the covid-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI

Cullen W, Gulati G, Kelly BD. Mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed DOI PMC