Leah Hibel Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Dr. Leah Hibel is a Professor in the Department of Human Ecology.
She received her degree in Biobehavioral Health from Penn State
University in 2009. Dr. Hibel’s research focuses on maternal and
child health particularly in the context of family stress.
Systemic oppression renders the Latinx community particularly vulnerable to the economic and health risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, with psychological consequences for parents and their children. In a recent study, we sought to understand how financial cutbacks and fears of contracting COVID-19 contributed to children’s externalizing behaviors due to increases in maternal stress among low-income Latina mothers. Data were collected from mothers approximately once a month across the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Systemic oppression makes the Latino community especially vulnerable to the economic, health, and psychological risks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Latina mothers, in particular, must navigate the pandemic from their racialized, gendered, and classed positions while caring for children and families. In a recent study, conducted during California’s initial shelter-in-place mandate (March 20 – June 1, 2020), we surveyed 70 Latina mothers from Sacramento and Yolo Counties. We assessed stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms among these women.
Losing a parent is one of the most profound stressors a child can
experience; it threatens the child’s safety and causes a
heightened state of “fight or flight.” This type of stressor
rapidly increases the child’s heart rate and blood pressure.
Stress hormones like epinephrine and cortisol flood the system.
Fear and panic take over. Decades of science suggest
that these separations are traumatic and likely to cause lifelong
mental and physical health problems.
Do mothers’ biological responses to stress transfer to her child?
This is a question addressed in a recently published study by
Leah Hibel of UC Davis and Evelyn Mercado of UCLA. Though prior
reports have shown that mothers help their children regulate
distress through calming and soothing, there are few studies that
examine the ways in which a mother facing stress might transmit
stress to her child. This study shows that mothers transmit
stress to their infants and that mothers’ emotions appear to play
a role in this transmission.
