Scoping Review of Racial and Ethnic Representation of Participants in Mental Health Research Conducted in the Perinatal Period During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: To identify the racial and ethnic representation of participants in mental health research conducted in the perinatal period during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science.

Study Selection: We included peer-reviewed research articles in which researchers reported mental health outcomes of women during the perinatal period who were living in the United States or Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. We included 25 articles in the final review.

Data Extraction: We extracted the citation, publication date, design, aim, country of origin, participant characteristics, sampling method, method of measurement of race and ethnicity, and mental health outcome(s).

Data Synthesis: The combined racial and ethnic representation of the 16,841 participants in the included studies was White (76.5%), Black (9.8%), other/multiracial (6.2%), Asian (3.9%), Hispanic/Latina (2.6%), Indigenous or Ethnic Minority Canadian (0.9%), and Native American or Alaska Native (0.1%). Most studies were conducted in the United States, used a cross-sectional design, and incorporated social media platforms to recruit participants. Depression, anxiety, and stress were the most frequently assessed mental health outcomes.

Conclusion: Relatively few women of color who were pregnant or in the postpartum period during the pandemic participated in mental health research studies. Future studies should develop intentional recruitment strategies to increase participation of women of color. Researchers should use updated guidance on reporting race and ethnicity to accurately represent every participant, minimize misclassification of women of color, and report meaningful results.