- Published
- 27 March 2025
- Journal article
Association between maternal mental health, the COVID-19 pandemic, and children's developmental outcomes in Scotland
- Authors
- Source
- Archives of Public Health
Abstract
Background: The number of reported maternal mental health (MH) MH difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic was higher compared with the pre-pandemic period. Findings on the link between the COVID-19 pandemic and children's developmental outcomes suggest lower scores on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) among children born during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic cohort. The present study explored the effects of maternal MH and being born during COVID-19 on children's developmental outcomes. Further, it examined the combined effect of maternal MH and birth during COVID-19 on children's developmental outcomes.
Study design
This study used a linked administrative dataset from Scotland. Children born between 1st March 2020 and 30th June 2021, inclusive (n=32,683), and a comparative historical cohort that included those born between 1st April 2017 and 31st October 2018 in Scotland (n=50,257) were included. Regression models were used to adjust for covariates, with outcomes such as ASQ-3 scores and developmental concerns and predictors such as maternal MH and birth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results
A history of MH hospital admission was associated with increased odds of developmental concerns (odds ratio (OR)= 1.038, 95% CI [1.012, 1.064], p=0.004**) and reduced ASQ scores SD; 0.13 (β =-0.130, 95% CI [-0.204, -0.056], p<0.001***). There were mixed findings on the association between being born during the COVID-19 pandemic (developmental concerns: OR= 1.024, 95% CI [1.019, 1.029], p<0.001***) and ASQ scores (β= 0.012, 95% CI [-0.002, 0.025], p=0.08) but no interaction between a history of MH hospital admission and birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there was an interaction effect on mental health assessed by outpatient records association and birth during the COVID-19 pandemic on the ASQ scores SD; -0.07 (β =-0.066, 95% CI [-0.106, -0.027], p<0.001***).
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that although being born during the COVID-19 pandemic and MH influenced child development with relatively small effects, with mixed findings on their combined presence. Our study only examined developmental outcomes up to age 13 – 15 months. Future studies should explore the potential long-term effects of being born during the pandemic and MH.
Rights
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Cite as
Okelo, K., Marryat, L., Murray, A., King, J., Hardie, I., Boardman, J., Lombardo, M., Stock, S., Wood, R. & Auyeung, B. 2025, 'Association between maternal mental health, the COVID-19 pandemic, and children's developmental outcomes in Scotland', Archives of Public Health, 83, article no: 82. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-025-01572-w