In the pandemic from the womb. Prenatal exposure, maternal psychological stress and mental health in association with infant negative affect at 6 months of life.

For mother-infant health especially, the pandemic has brought multiple stressors inside a susceptible psychobiological system. We study the longitudinal associations between maternal prenatal and postpartum: (a) COVID-19 stressful events exposure, (b) pandemic psychological stress, and (c) mental health and infants' negative affect. A sample of 643 Italian pregnant women completed a web-based survey from April 8th to May 4th, 2020 and a follow-up at 6 months after delivery. Maternal assessment covered prenatal and postpartum measures for: COVID-19 stressful events exposure, pandemic psychological stress, mental health symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder) and postpartum, social support and report of infants' negative affect. Maternal mental health symptoms during pregnancy, at the peak of pandemic, is longitudinally associated with infant negative affect, with postpartum mental health mediating this association. Also, maternal COVID-19 stressful events exposure in postpartum is associated with negative affect at 6 months mediated by postpartum mental health symptoms. Maternal pandemic psychological stress during pregnancy predicted mental health symptoms in postpartum. The study supports the association between pandemic-related maternal health across pregnancy and postpartum and offspring's development (i.e., negative affect). It also puts the spotlight on mental health risk in women experiencing lockdown during pregnancy, especially when feeling high psychological stress in pregnancy or when directly exposed to COVID-19 stressful events postpartum.

POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER CHECKLIST FOR DSM-5 (PCL-5). LATENT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS AND MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE IN A SAMPLE OF ITALIAN HEALTH WORKERS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a significant threat to health workers (HW) in terms of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and disorder (PTSD). Over the years, alternative PTSD structures have been proposed (DSM-5, Dysphoria, Dysphoric Arousal, Anhedonia, Externalizing Behaviors, Hybrid) and tested. To date, no studies have addressed this issue focusing on HW during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigated the fit of alternative PTSD structures in two Italian samples: HW during the COVID-19 pandemic, and university students in a pre-pandemic context. A total of 580 HW and 451 students completed the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) assessing PTSS. Confirmatory factor analysis investigated the best PTSD structure in each sample;measurement invariance was also inspected. The Anhedonia structure performed best in both samples;this model showed configural, metric, variances and covariances invariance. Results pave the way to the use of the PCL-5 to tailor intervention supporting HW during the pandemic. [ FROM AUTHOR]