Social Determinants of Health Influence on COVID-19 Exposure and Impact among Parents of School-Aged Children: A Longitudinal Report

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic placed parents of school-aged children at risk for negative psychological outcomes. This study describes how much parents of school aged-children were exposed to and impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Recruited via Facebook advertisements, parents completed an online survey about their COVID-19 exposure and impact at two time-points, May 2020-July 2020 (T1) and November 2020-January 2021 (T2). Data from 580 parents in T1 and 232 in T2 were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and t-tests. Attrition analyses assessed group differences in participation between timepoints. Results: Mean COVID-19 impact increased over time, t(231) =-2.84, p=.005, while mean COVID-19 exposure scores remained fairly constant in the first year of the pandemic (t(df=231) =1.50, p=0.07). However, there were significant decreases in individual items, such as school closures (t(df=230) =9.19, p<.001) and stay-athome orders (t(df=230)=9.74, p<.001). Demographic and Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), including male sex (r=-0.12, p=0.003), lower income (r=-0.29, p<0.001), less education (r=-0.21, p=0.001), and identifying as Black or African American (F(8,586)=3.399, p<0.01), were significantly associated with greater exposure and impact. Parents with lower income and less education were less likely to participate in T2. Discussion: COVID-19 significantly impacted families during the pandemic and worsened over time. These difficulties were related to several SDoH. Future research should leverage longitudinal studies to investigate the effects of COVID-19 exposure on family functioning, especially for high-risk populations. Understanding the mechanisms of this risk is crucial to the development of supportive interventions for vulnerable groups during times of crisis.