Baseline Sociodemographic Characteristics and Mental Health Status of Primary Caregivers and Children Attending Schools on the Navajo Nation During COVID-19.
Shannon Archuleta, Joshuaa D Allison-Burbank, Allison Ingalls and 6 others
PMID 38936839WHAT IT FOUND
Navajo caregivers and children had high mental health risk at school reopening: one-quarter caregiver depression risk, nearly 40% anxiety risk, and 15.7% child distress risk.
Caregivers also reported cultural identity, hope, self-esteem, and child resilience.
Key findings
01At baseline, one-quarter of caregivers were at risk for major depressive disorder and nearly 40% were at risk for severe anxiety.
02Caregiver reports indicated 15.7% of index children were at risk for mental distress, approximately 3% likely had PTSD, and nearly 8% were at risk for anxiety.
03Seventeen caregivers reported a history of suicidal ideation, and 14 reported a history of suicide attempts; 4 children had a history of suicidal ideation and 2 had a history of suicide attempt.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a baseline cross-sectional description, not a test of whether returning to school changed mental health; no statistical significance testing was done. The initial aim was 500 participants, but the analysed caregiver sample was 242, and the authors say the study may be underpowered to detect certain associations. Participants were recruited by convenience sampling, so they may not represent all Navajo Nation families. The caregiver sample was overwhelmingly female (88.7%), so results may differ with more male caregivers. Children's mental health was reported by caregivers only, not by the children themselves, so parent-child disagreement could not be checked. The paper reports only baseline data; later follow-up waves are described as expected but not analysed here.
Declared interests
The paper lists NIH and non-U.S. government research support and reports funding from the NIH RADx-UP initiative (OT2HD107543); no author conflict-of-interest declaration is included in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these high risk rates as proof that school reopening caused distress or that a community programme works. This was a cross-sectional baseline description with convenience sampling and no statistical significance testing.