Evaluation of worry level in healthcare professionals and mental symptoms encountered in their children during the COVID-19 pandemic process

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the worry level in healthcare professionals and the mental symptoms encountered in their children during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The study was designed in a cross-sectional, descriptive and relational screening model. Target population of the study comprised healthcare professionals living in Turkey who had children aged 6 to 16 years. The study data was obtained from 457 healthcare professionals who were accessible online between June 15 and August 15, 2020. The Introductory Information Form, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17 (PSC-17) were used as data collection method. The mean age of the healthcare professionals was 39.82 ± 4.83 years and 88.6% of them were female, 58.6% were nurses, 9.0% were doctors and 54.3% were working in the pandemic service. The mean total PSWQ score of the healthcare professionals was 53.53 ± 11.82 and the mean total PSC-17 score of their children was 10.74 ± 5.68. The mean PSWQ score of the healthcare professionals who had a psychological disease and provided care to COVID-19 patients was significantly higher. The PSC-17 scores were significantly higher in children with a mental disorder. There was a statistically significant positively correlation between the mean total PSWQ score of the healthcare professionals and the mean total PSC-17 score of their children. The study showed that children of healthcare professionals who experience all aspects of the pandemic, comprise an important risk group because they are unable to have physical contact with their parents and they experience the pandemic-related measures more.