Tracking the Social, Cognitive and Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 from the Womb to Old Age

COVID-19 and its impact on living conditions is exposing Australians and the global community to a toxic combination of two extreme psychological stressors: existential threat and social isolation. The impact of both of these stressors on mental health cannot be over-estimated and is likely to extend well beyond the end of the pandemic. These protracted effects will be likely potentiated by the hypothesised impact of COVID-19 related stressors on cognitive functioning and social support networks, especially in young people in whom these protective factors are still developing. To tailor the national and global response to the population's current and future mental health care needs, accurate estimates of the impact of COVID-19 on mental health are urgently needed. The proposed study aims to address this need by investigating the direct effect of these stressors on mental health as well as their indirect impact through the reduction of the protective effects of social support networks and cognitive functioning. To achieve this aim, the study will harness a multimodal online self-report and cognitive testing platform, mood tracking app and online social network assessment developed by the UNSW-based research team. Recruitment will target N = 3020 individuals across the lifespan based in Australia, the UK and US, with a particular focus on pregnant women (n = 600) and young people (8-24 years; n = 1920). We will also recruit adults (25-75 years; n = 500). Collecting data from these different geographical regions will allow for a naturalistic manipulation of the stressors (i.e., different levels of existential threat and social distancing regulations). Participants will complete self-report measures to assess their experience of COVID-19 related stressors and mental well-being. The quality and size of individuals' social support networks will be measured using novel social network modelling techniques. An online cognitive task will track changes in cognitive functioning. To assess the impact of the stressors over time all measures will be re-administered after three (T2) and six (T3) months. Infant well-being and development for the offspring of pregnant mothers (T1) will be recorded with maternal self-report at T2 and T3. All data from young people, will additionally be harmonised with data from external collaborators in the UK (University of Cambridge & University of Oxford) and the US (University of Pittsburgh & University of Oregon), to investigate the replicability of the effects across samples. It is hypothesised that COVID-19 related stressors will lead to an increase in mental health problems across the population, especially in young people. Research investigating the effects of peripartum stress in mothers on maternal postpartum mental health and infant emotional and cognitive development, further, suggests that infants of mothers most affected by COVID-19 related stressors will show impaired developmental outcomes. Finally, all hypothesized effects will vary as a function of perceived existential threat as well as duration and severity of social distancing regulations implemented in the respondents' countries. Together these findings will enable estimation of current mental health needs across the population, and allow us to forecast future need based on the accelerated nature of the design across recruitment sites and age. These data are urgently needed by governments both nationally and internationally, as the scale of the predicted impact will require co-ordinated effort to deploy evidence-based interventions in easy-to-disseminate formats; for example through e-mental health interventions.