During the COVID‐19 pandemic, families have experienced unprecedented financial and social disruptions. We studied the impact of preexisting psychosocial factors and pandemic‐related financial and social disruptions in relation to family well‐being among
The COVID‐19 pandemic in South Africa introduced new societal adversities and mental health threats in a country where one in three individuals are expected to develop a psychiatric condition sometime in their life. Scientists have suggested that psychosocial stress and trauma during childhood may increase one's vulnerability to the mental health consequences of future stressors—a process known as stress sensitization. This prospective analysis assessed whether childhood adversity experienced among South African children across the first 18 years of life, coinciding with the post‐apartheid transition, exacerbates the mental health impacts of psychosocial stress experienced during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic (ca. 2020–2021).
Data came from 88 adults who participated in a follow‐up study of a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto, South Africa. Childhood adversity and COVID‐19 psychosocial stress were assessed as primary predictors of adult PTSD risk, and an interaction term between childhood adversity and COVID‐19 stress was calculated to evaluate the potential effect of stress sensitization.
Fifty‐six percent of adults exhibited moderate‐to‐severe PTSD symptoms. Greater childhood adversity and higher COVID‐19 psychosocial stress independently predicted worse post‐traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adults. Adults who reported greater childhood adversity exhibited non‐significantly worse PTSD symptoms from COVID‐19 psychosocial stress.
These results highlight the deleterious mental health effects of both childhood trauma and COVID‐19 psychosocial stress in our sample and emphasize the need for greater and more accessible mental health support as the pandemic progresses in South Africa.
- Award ID(s):
- 1849265
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10421037
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Journal of Biological Anthropology
- Volume:
- 182
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2692-7691
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 620-631
- Size(s):
- p. 620-631
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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