“Everything sucked... for everyone”: Narrative of a Student Journeying Through Engineering Before COVID-19, During COVID-19, and Beyond

This paper reports on the final year of the project, CAREER: Actualizing Latent Diversity: Building Innovation through Engineering Students' Identity Development (NSF EEC 1554057). Engineering has a history of attracting and graduating look-a-like and think-a-like engineers. Those who look or think like a “stereotypical engineer” may feel more welcome in engineering and may be why engineering has attracted and graduated similar students. This research project considered the unique ways of being, thinking, and knowing-what we call latent diversity-that can be highlighted and valued. Students' latent diversity may or may not align with the values in engineering education that focus on a social/technical dualism, meritocracy, and rigor, which are built-in Whiteness and masculinity. Students, particularly minoritized students (i.e., women, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students), may feel pushed out of engineering or they may feel the need to conform to these values to fit in. These messages create an engineering education that limits who can be an engineer as well as how these engineers are prepared to solve complex engineering problems. In this paper, we use an example of one student, John, and how he navigated his experiences through engineering over four years. We discuss how key themes of mental health and neurodiversity intersect with his identity development as an engineer over time as well as overlap and were complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We use this rich, single case as an example of how the mixed methods research in this study provides a nuanced understanding of students' trajectories in engineering. We also discuss the implications of this work for inclusive teaching and provide connections to existing resources and tools developed from the research project. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022

Experience of COVID-19 and Postpartum Mental Health

Background: Early reports show pregnant and postpartum women have increased rates of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. These elevations could be related to fear of contracting COVID or mitigation strategies, such as social distancing and stay-at-home orders. First-time mothers may be uniquely vulnerable to these stressors. We examined whether 1) exposure to potentially stressful COVID-19 events, perceived impact of COVID-19, and COVID-19 distress are related to anxiety and depression symptoms reported by first-time mothers, and 2) whether the relationship between COVID-19 related stressors and anxiety and depression is stronger for mothers reporting less social support. Methods: We interviewed 125 first-time mothers of infants less than 3 months old from four pediatric primary care offices in Pennsylvania and Delaware (June 2020 - February 2021). Mothers completed a self-report interview asking about social support, COVID-19 experiences, and anxiety and depression symptoms (EPDS Total, Anxiety, Depression). The COVID-19 measure yielded three variables: 1) number of potentially stressful COVID-19 pandemic-related events (Event Exposure), 2) perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on family (Family Impact), and 3) overall perceived distress related to the pandemic (Distress). Results: Participants (mean age = 29.18, SD: 5.50) were racially representative of the recruitment clinics (40.8% White;37.6% Black;11.2% Asian/Asian American;6.4% Latina). Hierarchical linear regression found COVID-19 Event Exposure was unrelated to Depression (β = 0.03, n.s.) and Anxiety (β = 0.04, n.s.). Controlling for Event Exposure, Family Impact was associated with higher EPDS Total (β = 0.32, p = 0.001), Depression (β = 0.29, p =.003), and Anxiety (β = 0.23, p = 0.02). Distress was significantly associated with higher EPDS Total (β = 0.21, p = 0.04) and Depression (β = 0.26, p = 00.01) but not Anxiety (β = 0.08, n.s.). Mothers reporting less social support had higher Depression scores (r = 0.26, p =.003), but social support was unrelated to Anxiety (r = 0.08, p = 0.41). The interaction of Family Impact and social support produced a nonsignificant trend (p = 0.09, Figure). Conclusion: While experience of more COVID-19 related events was unrelated to maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, maternal report of impact of COVID-19 on the family was associated with both anxiety and depression symptoms. Additionally, higher maternal distress reports and less perceived social supports were related to increased maternal depression symptoms. Therefore, future work should explore how to mitigate impact of COVID-19 families and connect mothers to social support to support maternal mental health.

Postpartum Mental Health and Infant Development During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Infection mitigation strategies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic influenced social experiences for new mothers and their infants, with potential to negatively impact infant development. Early reports during the pandemic show postpartum women have increased rates of anxiety and depression which are known risk factors for developmental delay. Additionally, stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and use of face masks may alter visual input (facial expressions and oral motor movements) infants receive with the potential to negatively impact social-emotional and communication development. Thus, there is need to examine the developmental trajectory of infants born during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized that higher COVID impact and maternal symptoms of anxiety and depression would be linked to greater risk for developmental delay. Methods: We recruited 125 first-time mothers of infants less than 3 months of age from four pediatric primary care offices in Pennsylvania and Delaware (June 2020 - February 2021). Mothers completed a self-report interview when their infants were less than 3 months of age (baseline) and again at 6 months of age (follow-up), asking about COVID-19 family impact, anxiety and depression symptoms (EPDS Total, Anxiety, Depression), infant development (ASQ-3 at 3 months and 6 months and ASQ-SE at 6 months), and items inquiring about the frequency of mother-child caretaking activities across a range of behaviors. Results: Bivariate correlations found that while perceived family impact from COVID-19 was related to maternal self-report of postpartum depression symptoms at baseline (r = .32, p = .001), it was not related to the frequency of mother-child caretaking activities or infant development in the first 6 months of life. However, hierarchical linear regression found when controlling for COVID-19 family impact, baseline postpartum depression symptoms were related to fewer concurrent motherchild caretaking activities (β =.24, p = .007) and predicted poorer infant social-emotional development at 6 months of age (β = .23, p = .013). Conclusion: Consistent with prior literature, maternal postpartum depression symptoms were related to fewer concurrent mother-child caretaking activities and poorer infant social-emotional development at 6 months of age. However, despite anecdotal maternal concern, there was not a relationship between the effect of COVID-19 on the family unit and infant development. It is possible that COVID-19 pandemic effects will play a more prominent role as infants' complex language and social skills emerge. However, the current findings do not support a direct effect of pandemic family impact on infant development during the first six months of life, instead underscoring the importance of maternal wellbeing and functioning for infant social-emotional development.