Moms with limited financial resources experienced tremendous stress during the pandemic, finds study

A recent study from North Carolina State University finds that mothers with limited financial resources often experienced tremendous stress during the pandemic, but that they also valued the opportunity to spend more quality time with their children. The work highlights both their resilience and the need for additional resources to support low-income families.

We conducted this study because we wanted to gain a better understanding of the impact of the pandemic on mothers who have limited resources. What challenges did they face? Were there any positive outcomes associated with the pandemic?"

Mary Haskett, Study Corresponding Author, Professor of Psychology, North Carolina State University

To that end, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews of 15 mothers in central North Carolina who had limited financial resources. The interviews were conducted during the summer of 2020 and included assessments of each mother's stress levels, as well as a test designed to assess the quality of each parent's relationship with their children.

"Even though all of these mothers were experiencing significant financial challenges, their experiences during the pandemic varied widely," says Jodi Hall, co-author of the study and an associate professor of social work at NC State. "Some mothers experienced relatively mild distress, while other moms had to deal with high levels of stress.

"But even the mothers with high levels of stress reported that there were positive aspects of the pandemic," Hall says. "All of the mothers reported having the opportunity to spend more quality time with their children, and felt that this was a silver lining."

"Two key takeaway messages from this work are that these women are resilient and that they would benefit tremendously from additional institutional support," Haskett says. "For example, access to affordable child care and mental health resources would make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for these women and their families. We really hope policymakers take action to better support these families.

"In addition, while these findings are valuable, we would like to see similar studies conducted in other locales to get a better sense of how broadly these findings are applicable," Haskett says.

The paper, "'It Brought My Family More Together': Mixed-Methods Study of Low-Income U.S. Mothers During the Pandemic," is published open access in the journal Family Relations. The paper was co-authored by NC State Ph.D. students Heather Finster, Caitlyn Owens and Alexandra Buccelli.

The work was done with support from the North Carolina State University Non-laboratory Scholarship/ Research Support Program; the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, under grant number R01MD011746; and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, under grant number P30ES025128.