Psychological, endocrine and polygenic predictors of emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in a longitudinal birth cohort

The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected the lives of families, and the well-being of children and their parent. Prenatal stress, dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and genetic factors might influence individuals’ well-being in the presence of a major stressor such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The present work is part of an ongoing birth cohort study and aims to investigate maternal perceived stress, early childhood HPA axis activity, and polygenic risk scores (PRSs) as predictors of emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. All participants are part of the ongoing birth cohort study POSEIDON. Emotional well-being of children (n=263) and mothers (n=241) was assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic using the CRISIS questionnaire in two waves between June 2020 and February 2021. Associations of well-being with previously assessed maternal perceived stress, children’s salivary and morning urine cortisol at 45 months, PRSs for depression, schizophrenia, loneliness were investigated.

A positive association between the children’s and mothers’ emotional well-being was found. Lower emotional well-being was observed in both children and mothers during the pandemic compared to before. Children’s emotional well-being improved over the course of the pandemic. Prenatally assessed maternal perceived stress was associated with a decrease in children’s but not in the mothers’ well-being. Cortisol measures and PRSs were not significantly associated with emotional wellbeing.

The present study confirms that emotional well-being of children and mothers are linked, and were negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with differences in development over time.