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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

SO079

Typical UK families, their mental health and responses to crises: latent transition analysis in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis

TYPICAL UK FAMILIES, THEIR MENTAL HEALTH AND HOW THEY REACT TO CRISES: LATENT TRANSITION ANALYSIS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND COST-OF-LIVING CRISIS

Income alone does not reveal which families are struggling; family circumstances jointly shape the mental health of mothers, fathers and children, as well as who is most affected by crises.

The study aimed to characterise families using multivariate profiles rather than a single socioeconomic indicator, compare the mental health of mothers, fathers and children across these profiles, and test whether their responses to two national crises differed. The study examined 8,761 families with at least one parent and one child under 16 from waves 10 to 15 (2018 to 2024) of the Understanding Society study. Latent transition analysis was conducted using 11 indicators—7 household and 4 parental indicators—followed by mixed-effects models. Mental health was measured using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) for mothers and fathers, and the emotional symptoms, peer problems, conduct problems and hyperactivity subscales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for children. Six family profiles were identified: low-income profiles accounted for 41% of families (13.2% low income and low education, 12.0% low income and higher education, and 16.0% low-income single-parent families), middle-income profiles accounted for 31% (15.0% and 15.8%), and the high-income profile accounted for 28.0%. Mothers in low-income, low-education families showed the highest psychological distress. Profiles 1 and 2 had similar incomes and differed only in maternal education and employment status (in profile 1, no mothers held a bachelor's degree and 24.12% were employed; in profile 2, 49.04% held a degree and 41.36% were employed), yet distress was markedly higher among mothers in profile 1. The pandemic increased maternal distress only in middle- and high-income families (changes in standard deviation units relative to a counterfactual scenario without the crisis: +0.10 for profile 4, +0.11 for profile 5 and +0.18 for profile 6). The cost-of-living crisis increased peer problems only among children in low-income profiles 2 and 3 (+0.37 and +0.32). In conclusion, although the poorest families had the worst mental health, accounting for other family circumstances, such as parental education, revealed distinct patterns across family members, highlighting the need for family-sensitive, targeted public health approaches.

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