New Study Looks At The Effects Of Maternal Exposure To Oil Spill On Their Children’s Mental Health

A new study published in PLOS One looked at maternal exposure to oil spill and children’s mental health and the mediating role of resource loss.

After the Deepwater Horizon (BP) Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, the study researchers established the WaTCH Study and began interviewing and collecting biomarkers on women and children living in the seven Louisiana parishes (counties) in closest proximity to the oil spill to assess short and long-term health effects. 

“We’ve collected three waves of data, so far, with the first wave occurring in 2012-2014, the second in 2014 to 2016, and the third just recently ended,” first study author Ariane Rung told us. “This particular analysis focused on the mental health of children at Wave 2. We wanted to see whether children’s mental health was affected by their mothers’ exposure to the oil spill, and if so, how.”

The research team theorized that the Conservation of Resources model of stress and adaptation would be in play. This theory suggests that disasters, like the oil spill, often threaten or deplete the resources of impacted individuals, and that this loss can lead to stress and negative mental health outcomes. The research team hypothesized that mothers lost resources as a result of the oil spill, and that this led negative mental health outcomes in their children.

“We chose this topic because one of our earliest analyses of the WaTCH data found negative mental health associations among women exposed to the oil spill,” Rung told us. “There had been even fewer studies of oil spill impact on children, so we wanted to explore whether children’s mental health was also impacted.”

The research team used data from their interviews of mothers and their children in the seven Louisiana parishes at Waves 1 and 2 of the WaTCH Study. The children were between ages 10 and 17 at Wave 1. They assessed maternal exposure to the oil spill by asking mothers questions about, for example, whether the oil spill had caused damage to areas where they fished commercially, whether it had affected the recreational activities of the household, or whether their household had lost income due to employment disruption caused by the oil spill. 

“We assessed children’s mental health though a set of 25 questions from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, that give an overall indication of behavioral and emotional challenges that children are experiencing,” Rung told us. “Finally, we measured resource loss by asking a set of questions from the Conservation of Resources-Evaluation instrument that asks about a broad range of resources related to coping options and psychological well-being that may be impacted by a disaster.” 

These resources separated into two groups that the researchers called mothers’ financial resource loss and mothers’ social resource loss. Financial resource loss included questions about things like “money for extras” or “having adequate food.” Social resource loss included questions about things like “closeness with family members” or “companionship.” The research team put all the data into a structural equation model that allowed them to statistically test for whether maternal resource loss mediates the effect of maternal oil spill exposure on children’s mental health.

“We found that the relationship between maternal oil spill exposure at Wave 1 and children’s mental health at Wave 2 was not statistically significant, which means that maternal oil spill exposure was not directly related to children’s mental health,” Rung told us. “However, maternal oil spill exposure was significantly related to increased maternal resource loss at Wave 2, and this loss was related to worse children’s mental health at Wave 2.” 

This suggests that resource loss was indeed mediating the effect of maternal exposure on children’s mental health. In other words, maternal exposure was indirectly affecting children’s mental health due to the oil spill’s impact on maternal resource loss.

“I can’t say I was very surprised,” Rung told us. “It feels almost intuitive that if mom is suffering somehow from a disaster, particular financially and socially, the children are also likely to suffer. The results of this study suggest that is indeed what is happening. While it’s important to be able to say that disaster exposure leads to negative consequences in children, it’s also important to be able to suggest why. In this case, it was directly through these losses of resources.”

Going forward, Rung explained that the results suggest the needs of survivors of disasters need to be anticipated, specifically the children of adults who were negatively impacted, both pre- and post- disaster. Interventions could be considered to mitigate these effects by focusing on financial needs, particularly for families of lower socioeconomic status, who might benefit from increased financial support. 

“It’s also important not to neglect families’ social needs and strengthening community ties,” Rung told us. “It’s critical to understand that by tending to parents’ needs, we can also be mitigating impacts on children’s mental health.”