Abstract
Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To better understand changes in and predictors of their mental and physical health, in the current study, we used three waves of data (two prepandemic and a third during summer 2020) from 329 Black men and women in the rural South. Results indicated that health worsened after the onset of the pandemic, including increased depressive symptoms and sleep problems and decreased self-reported general health. Greater exposure to COVID-19-related stressors was significantly associated with poorer health. Prepandemic stressors (financial strain, racial discrimination, chronic stress) and prepandemic resources (marital quality, general support from family and friends) were significantly associated with exposure to COVID-19-related stressors and with health during the pandemic. Findings underscore how the pandemic posed the greatest threats to Black Americans with more prepandemic psychosocial risks and highlight the need for multifaceted interventions that address current and historical stressors among this population.
Highlights
The ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has upended life in the United States and globally
We aim to provide new insights regarding changes in self-reported psychological and physical health from before to during the pandemic among this sample, how COVID-19-related stressors are associated with their functioning, and how their prepandemic stressors and resources predict exposure to COVID-19-related stress and functioning
Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in other ways as well, including the degree to which they experienced pandemic-related stressors and psychological and physical-health disturbances
Summary
The ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has upended life in the United States and globally. CDC data indicated that Black Americans reported elevated rates of anxiety or depressive symptoms over the past 7 days in both August 2020 and January 2021 (37.7% and 44.5%, respectively) relative to White Americans during these periods (35.4% and 39.8%, respectively; Vahratian et al, 2021) At both time points, Black Americans were less likely than White Americans to be taking prescription medication for mental health or receiving therapy or counseling during the previous 4 weeks (15.6% vs 25.6% in August 2020 and 18.7% vs 28.1% in January 2021; Vahratian et al, 2021). Examining how exposure to COVID-19-related stressors is associated with psychological and physical health during the pandemic is important because, as noted earlier, Black Americans as a group were especially likely to experience pandemic-related stressors (e.g., job or wage loss, food insecurity, inaccessible medical care; Chakrabarti et al, 2021; Lopez et al, 2020)
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