"Don't Touch My Baby!": Negative Social Support Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Impacts on Maternal Mental Health

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mothers of young children are considered to be one of the most vulnerable populations and are at higher risk of receiving negative social support. This study used the longitudinal online surveys conducted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We identified experiences of negative social support from open-ended question and examined the relationships between such experiences and the onset of severe mental illness. In the follow-up survey, 170 (7.4%) of 2286 participants reported some kind of negative social support experiences, which were positively related to the onset of severe mental illness (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.08, 3.06], P = .023), adjusted for demographic variables, numbers of negative change related to COVID-19, and numbers of social support resources. It is necessary to increase social awareness to reduce the occurrence of negative social support under unusual circumstances.