We examined the direct and indirect links between COVID-19, maternal anxiety symptoms, and child behavior problems as well as the mediation-moderation links of mothers’ anxiety symptoms and mentalization skills with the prediction of child behavior problems. A sample of 140 Israeli mothers with preschool children comprised the study’s two groups: A COVID-19 group (n = 53), recruited shortly after the pandemic outbreak, and a pre-COVID-19 group (n = 87), recruited prior to the pandemic. Mothers completed online questionnaires regarding their own anxiety symptoms (BSI anxiety subscale) and their children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors (CBCL). Maternal mentalization was assessed via the mind-mindedness representational procedure. Findings showed that mothers in the COVID-19 group experienced more anxiety symptoms and perceived their children as having more externalizing and internalizing behaviors compared to mothers in the pre-COVID-19 group. Mothers’ anxiety symptoms mediated the effect of the pandemic on children’s behaviors so that the higher the mothers’ anxiety, the more externalizing and internalizing behaviors among the children. Mothers’ mentalization moderated the association between the pandemic and the children’s externalizing behaviors. Specifically, when mothers showed higher mentalization skills (higher mind-mindedness), the indirect effect of anxiety on the link between COVID-19 and children’s externalizing behaviors was weaker compared to when mothers showed lower mentalization skills (lower mind-mindedness). The implications of these findings for preventive and treatment interventions that aim to reduce maternal anxiety and enhance mentalization skills to prevent children’s behavior problems in the context of COVID-19 are discussed.

我们研究了 COVID-19、母亲焦虑症状和儿童行为问题之间的直接和间接联系，以及母亲焦虑症状和心理化技能与儿童行为问题预测之间的中介调节联系。该研究以 140 名有学龄前儿童的以色列母亲为样本，分为两组：一组是在大流行爆发后不久招募的 COVID-19 组（ n = 53），另一组是在大流行爆发之前招募的 COVID-19 之前组（n = 87）。大流行。母亲们完成了关于她们自己的焦虑症状（BSI 焦虑分量表）和孩子的内化和外化行为（CBCL）的在线调查问卷。母亲的心智化是通过心智表征程序进行评估的。研究结果显示，与 COVID-19 之前组的母亲相比，COVID-19 组中的母亲经历了更多的焦虑症状，并认为她们的孩子有更多的外化和内化行为。母亲的焦虑症状介导了疫情对儿童行为的影响，母亲的焦虑程度越高，孩子的外化和内化行为就越多。母亲的心理化调节了流感大流行与孩子的外化行为之间的关联。具体来说，当母亲表现出较高的心理化技能（较高的心理意识）时，与母亲表现出较低的心理化技能（较低的心理意识）相比，焦虑对COVID-19与儿童外化行为之间联系的间接影响较弱。 讨论了这些发现对预防和治疗干预措施的影响，这些预防和治疗干预措施旨在减少产妇焦虑并增强心理化技能，以防止儿童在 COVID-19 的背景下出现行为问题。