Unheard Voices: The Mental Health Challenges of Korean Immigrant Caregivers of Children and Young Adults with Developmental Disabilities

Background/Purpose:

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes to individuals' lifestyles. Despite plenty of concerns about physical/mental health, financial pressures, and social isolation of families of children and young adults with developmental disabilities (DD), there is limited focus on underserved members (i.e., Korean immigrant families) within the DD community. This study aims to explore the population's concerns during the pandemic and compare the overall concerns and mental health between caregivers of children and young adults with DD and their counterparts.

Methods:

A cross-sectional, quantitative study using an online/in-person survey was used (n = 53). Convenience and snowball sampling methods were used to recruit 30 caregivers of children and young adults with DD and 23 caregivers of children without disabilities in collaboration with staff from community-based agencies/churches. After obtaining informed consent, participants completed the survey. For caregivers with limited English proficiency, the recruitment and consent documents and survey were translated into the participants' language.

Univariate and bivariate descriptive analyses using SPSS 26.0 were employed to summarize the prevalence of depression (9-item Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]; 0-27) and anxiety (7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder [GAD-7]; 0-21) and the overall concerns (18-item Likert scale; 0-72) related to socio-demographic factors. Also, bivariate analyses (t-test, Mann-Whitney U Test) were used to compare the concerns during the pandemic and the current mental health between the two groups. Finally, the association between the overall concerns and mental health among the population were examined using correlation analysis.

Results:

The caregivers of children and young adults with DD had low household incomes compared to their counterparts (χ2 (1, n = 53) = 15.6, p < .05]. There was a statistically significant difference in the overall concerns between caregivers of children with DD (M = 64.9, SD = 9.41) and caregivers of children without disabilities [M = 39.65, SD = 8.93; t(51) = -9.90, p < .001], showing higher score for caregivers of children and young adults with DD. The biggest concerns among caregivers were all related to their children with DD, including loneliness and separation, managing unstructured time and medical treatment, and physical health. In addition, there was a statistically significant difference in anxiety for the two groups [z=2.08, p < .05] using a cut-off of 8 or above of the GAD-7, showing a more clinically significant level of anxiety for caregivers of children and young adults with disabilities. Furthermore, there was a marginal, positive association between overall concerns during the pandemic and the current anxiety score [r(51) = . 26, p = .058] among the caregivers of children and young adults with DD.

Conclusions/Implications:

Findings show the urgent mental health care needs of caregivers of children and young adults with DD, who have been critical support systems for their children during the pandemic. The most negatively impacted Korean immigrant families by COVID-19 had children with DD and low income, showing the intersectionality of the mental health challenges. The findings call for enhanced community-wide coordinated efforts by applying intersectionality to reduce this underserved population's mental health disparity.