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Interactive effects of prenatal adversity and COVID-19 hardship on youth psychological distress: a longitudinal study
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Interactive effects of prenatal adversity and COVID-19 hardship on youth psychological distress: a longitudinal study

Yifan Wang, Xinni Wang, Chloe Voyer, Alain Brunet, Francois Freddy Ateba, Ashley Wazana and David P Laplante
Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol.4, pp.1-12
2025
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Published VersionCC BY V4.0 Open Access

Abstract

Applied and developmental psychology pre-natal maternal stress COVID-19 mental health resilience longitudical study early life adversity UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in severe loss of life and increased anxiety as well as fear worldwide. This study explored whether pre-pandemic exposure to varying levels of perinatal maternal adversity coupled with pandemic-related experiences are related to youth distress levels. Methods: Data from 119 youth (aged 9–17) and their mothers were analyzed to assess the interactive effects of perinatal maternal adversity and pandemic-related objective hardship on youth psychological distress. Results: Youth-reported hardship models consistently explained more variance in their psychological distress. Youth-reported hardship, specifically daily life changes, predicted psychological distress, including PTSD symptoms and peritraumatic experiences during the pandemic. Discussion: Youths exposed to high perinatal maternal socio-environmental adversity demonstrated resilience when faced with pandemic disruptions, suggesting that alignment between early adversity and later stress can mitigate distress during crises.

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