Abstract

During COVID-19, the rise in mental health issues has been referred to as a national crisis. Stress, anxiety, and depression among parents and caregivers may be exacerbated by economic uncertainty. In the early weeks of COVID-19, this study examined the relationship between food insecurity and material social support and subsequent mental health outcomes for parents and children using longitudinal data. At two time points, data were gathered from a national convenience sample of 359 parents in the United States: 14 April 2020 (T1) and 30 April 2020 Information were broke down utilizing multivariate direct and strategic relapse examinations. The majority of the sample (67.5%) were mothers and identified as White. Over half (51.4%) of parents who qualified for services were unable to receive free or reduced-price school lunch. In addition to increased parenting stress (= 0.16, p =.008) and parental report of child anxiety (= 0.15, p =.014), food insecurity at T1 was significantly associated with parental anxiety (OR = 1.52, p .001) and depression (OR = 1.63, p .001).