The Psychological and Economic Toll of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Latina Mothers in Primarily Low-Income Essential Worker Families

• Published in: Traumatology (Tallahassee, Fla.) Fla.), 2021-03, Vol.27 (1), p.40-47
• Main Authors: Hibel, Leah C., Boyer, Chase J., Buhler-Wassmann, Andrea C., Shaw, Blake J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Coronavirus; COVID-19; Economics; Family; Female; Human; Latinos/Latinas; Lower Income Level; Major Depression; Mothers; Pandemics; Stress; Symptoms; Test Construction
• ISSN: 1534-7656; 1085-9373; 1085-9373
• DOI: 10.1037/trm0000293

The COVID-19 pandemic will have widespread health, economic, and psychological consequences. Reports indicate the Latino community is particularly vulnerable to the economic and health risks of this pandemic as a consequence of systemic oppression. Latina mothers, in particular, are navigating the pandemic from their racialized, gendered, and classed positions while caring for children and families. These factors are likely to have a significant psychological toll. The sample consisted of 70 Latina mothers. The majority of the families (72%) contained at least one employed adult, of which 91.7% were essential workers. Factors associated with stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms during the initial March 20 to June 1, 2020, California "shelter in place" mandate were assessed via phone survey using validated measures and Likert-scale items created for the study. Receipt of the federal stimulus check on stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms was also assessed. Due to the pandemic, 52.7% of the mothers reported being forced to engage in economic cutbacks. Mothers' experiences of stress during the outbreak stem from worries about themselves contracting the virus and making economic cutbacks. Economic cutbacks were also associated with greater reports of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Receiving the stimulus payment did not reduce economic cutbacks, contract worries, stress, or depressive and anxiety symptoms. Findings highlight the pandemic's immediate economic toll on Latino families. Further, these economic implications seem to be having downstream effects on mothers' psychological well-being, which were not alleviated by the stimulus payment.