Infectious diseases, which have many medical, economic and social negative aspects, are conditions that people have suffered throughout history and today, which is reported to be highly related to mental problems (Zürcher et al., 2020). With the COVID-19 pandemic, the effect of infectious diseases on mental problems has come to the fore again (Xiong et al., 2020).

Due to the deteriorating flow of life during the pandemic, people experience depression, anxiety, stress, etc. and thus, many psychological problems emerge. These psychological problems are reported to increase due to various reasons (Wang et al., 2020) and to be caused by the isolation of family members, limitation in their mobility, social and economic difficulties, uncertainties, etc. (Racine et al., 2021). During the pandemic process, certain mental disorders such as depression, stress and anxiety are seen in mothers due to a variety of reasons such as the uncertainty of the disease, high risk of transmission and mortality rates, social and financial problems (Araújo et al., 2021). However, social isolation due to COVID-19, the inability to maintain continuity of interaction with their social environment, which is among the basic needs of preschool children, and the difficulty of children in understanding the events in their environment, have caused them to experience various psychological problems. Alisinanoglu et al. (2020) reported in their research that children were negatively affected psychosocially due to the change in social life caused by the pandemic process and that behavioral problems such as irritability, crying for no reason, shouting and tantrums increased. The increase in these problems seen in children has led to a further increase in the feelings of depression, anxiety and stress experienced by mothers due to the pandemic process (Alisinanoglu et al., 2020; Tuzcuoglu et al., 2021).

Conducting diagnosis and intervention studies for mental disorders of mothers and evaluating the psychological effects of the pandemic process on individuals are very important for mothers as well as families and children (Pereira et al., 2020). During the pandemic, individuals' psychological responses significantly affect the spread of the disease and the emotional distress and social dysfunctions that may occur in the next stage. For this reason, it is important to conduct research on the psychological effects of the pandemic on individuals in order to pass the pandemic process in a healthy way (Arden & Chilcot, 2020; Cullen et al., 2020). In this context, in the studies carried out by UNICEF (2020) and in the recommendations for families, it has been pointed out that the difficulties experienced during the COVID-19 period may differ with familial and environmental factors and may be related to the stress levels of the families. It has been stated that it is important to determine the styles of coping with stress to have insight into how individuals cope with COVID-19 process (Arden & Chilcot, 2020).

The reactions or coping styles of individuals who have been exposed to many negativities, traumatic, traumatic and stressful life events throughout their lives may change. While some individuals react to stressful and traumatic situations with mental problems such as anxiety and depression, others can get out of their negative mood in a short time and continue their normal lives (Bhattacharjee & Ghosh, 2022). It is of great importance for individuals to manage and cope with stress during the pandemic process in order to continue their lives in a healthy way. At this point, it is important to examine the strategies for coping with stress and to increase the use of effective coping styles including self-confidence approach, optimistic approach, and seeking social support (Freire et al., 2022).

In the COVID-19 pandemic process, which causes concerns at the international level, the increase in individuals' depression, stress and anxiety levels is seen as a risk factor in terms of effective ways of coping with stress (Browning et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2020). Research results show that effective coping styles can be a protective factor for depression, anxiety and stress (Browning et al., 2021; Siyu et al., 2020). Therefore, it is important to develop effective coping styles in order to prevent mental problems that individuals may experience during and after the pandemic or to alleviate the effects of these problems (Mariani Wigley et al., 2021). These roles and responsibilities fall onto the shoulders of nurses. When nurses fulfill these responsibilities, they will provide a basis for the development of preventive intervention programs that will protect and improve the mental health of mothers and therefore their children (Wang et al., 2020). Considering that there are few studies on the topic in Turkey and the importance of examining the pandemic process in detail in to reveal the negative situations and emotions experienced by individuals (Waters et al., 2022), in this study, mothers who had preschool children during the pandemic process were evaluated for depression, stress and anxiety. It was aimed to determine the level of their anxiety and its connection with stress-coping styles. Thus, the factors that protect the psychological health of individuals during the pandemic process were determined, and it was predicted that the process would be overcome in a healthy way and that it would guide the studies planned for the development of effective stress coping styles for individuals in the next period.

What are the depression, anxiety and stress levels of mothers with preschool children during the pandemic?

What is the relationship between the DASS-21 mean scores of mothers with pre-school children and their descriptive characteristics?

What is the relationship between mothers' DASS-21 and their stress coping styles score?