Associations between the impact of COVID-19 and maternal stress

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has instigated many unique challenges for parents, including mental and physical health concerns, economic stress, and increased marital conflict. COVID-19 related stressors may pose a threat to child well-being, as parental distress has been linked to child maltreatment and could result in poorer developmental outcomes (Xu & Wu, 2020; Browne, 2020). The purpose of this study was to determine if impact of the pandemic is associated with higher levels of maternal stress. Mothers are the focus of the current study, as women are typically primary caregivers within the family and are at risk for higher levels of parenting stress (Griffith et al., 2010). We hypothesized that mothers who have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic will report higher levels of stress