Stress, social support, and long COVID diagnosis and symptom burden in women

To examine whether general stress and childcare stress are associated with long COVID status, symptom number, and symptom duration in women, and whether perceived and received social support moderate associations after accounting for sociodemographic and health-related factors.

Participants were 2,508 U.S. mothers of young children who completed an online survey in July 2023 as part of a larger longitudinal study begun with pregnant women during the pandemic. All reported at least one prior COVID-19 infection and a subset (n = 280) reported perceived or diagnosed long COVID.

Higher general stress (aggregate of past 6 months, past month, current stress) was associated with a greater number of symptoms and higher odds of long COVID, but not with symptom duration. Childcare stress was marginally associated with shorter duration; a greater number of dependent children predicted more symptoms but lower diagnostic odds. Greater perceived support weakened the stress-symptom association but marginally strengthened the stress-long COVID association. Greater received support buffered the stress-long COVID link yet amplified stress-related differences in symptom duration. Overall, childcare stress and interaction effects were not robust to correction for multiple comparisons.

Stress is meaningfully linked to long COVID risk, symptom number, and duration among women, but associations vary across outcomes and are modified by different types of social support. Differentiating perceived and diagnosed long COVID revealed potential inequities in illness recognition. Findings underscore the need for gender-sensitive approaches to long COVID research and care that consider potential impacts of stress and social support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).