TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Undergraduate and Graduate Students’ Mental Health and Treatment Use Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
AU - Lin, Sin Ying
AU - Schleider, Jessica L.
AU - Nelson, Brady D.
AU - Richmond, Lauren L.
AU - Eaton, Nicholas R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted numerous people?s mental health and created new barriers to services. To address the unknown effects of the pandemic on accessibility and equality issues in mental health care, this study aimed to investigate gender and racial/ethnic disparities in mental health and treatment use in undergraduate and graduate students amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted based on a largescale online survey (N = 1,415) administered during the weeks following a pandemic-related university-wide campus closure in March 2020. We focused on the gender and racial disparities in current internalizing symptomatology and treatment use. Our results showed that in the initial period of the pandemic, students identified as cis women (p <.001), non-binary/genderqueer (p <.001), or Hispanic/Latinx (p =.002) reported higher internalizing problem severity (aggregated from depression, generalized anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and COVID-19-related stress symptoms) compared to their privileged counterparts. Additionally, Asian (p <.001) and multiracial students (p =.002) reported less treatment use than White students while controlling for internalizing problem severity. Further, internalizing problem severity was associated with increased treatment use only in cisgender, non-Hispanic/Latinx White students (pcis man = 0.040, pcis woman < 0.001). However, this relationship was negative in cis-gender Asian students (pcis man = 0.025, pcis woman = 0.016) and nonsignificant in other marginalized demographic groups. The findings revealed unique mental health challenges faced by different demographic groups and served as a call that specific actions to enhance mental health equity, such as continued mental health support for students with marginalized gender identities, additional COVID-related mental and practical support for Hispanic/Latinx students and promotion of mental health awareness, access, and trust in non-White, especially Asian, students are desperately needed.
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted numerous people?s mental health and created new barriers to services. To address the unknown effects of the pandemic on accessibility and equality issues in mental health care, this study aimed to investigate gender and racial/ethnic disparities in mental health and treatment use in undergraduate and graduate students amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted based on a largescale online survey (N = 1,415) administered during the weeks following a pandemic-related university-wide campus closure in March 2020. We focused on the gender and racial disparities in current internalizing symptomatology and treatment use. Our results showed that in the initial period of the pandemic, students identified as cis women (p <.001), non-binary/genderqueer (p <.001), or Hispanic/Latinx (p =.002) reported higher internalizing problem severity (aggregated from depression, generalized anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and COVID-19-related stress symptoms) compared to their privileged counterparts. Additionally, Asian (p <.001) and multiracial students (p =.002) reported less treatment use than White students while controlling for internalizing problem severity. Further, internalizing problem severity was associated with increased treatment use only in cisgender, non-Hispanic/Latinx White students (pcis man = 0.040, pcis woman < 0.001). However, this relationship was negative in cis-gender Asian students (pcis man = 0.025, pcis woman = 0.016) and nonsignificant in other marginalized demographic groups. The findings revealed unique mental health challenges faced by different demographic groups and served as a call that specific actions to enhance mental health equity, such as continued mental health support for students with marginalized gender identities, additional COVID-related mental and practical support for Hispanic/Latinx students and promotion of mental health awareness, access, and trust in non-White, especially Asian, students are desperately needed.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Gender
KW - Internalizing problems
KW - Mental health equity
KW - Race/ethnicity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148223195&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85148223195&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10488-023-01256-z
DO - 10.1007/s10488-023-01256-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 36802042
AN - SCOPUS:85148223195
SN - 0894-587X
VL - 50
SP - 552
EP - 562
JO - Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research
JF - Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research
IS - 4
ER -