An intersectional examination of the impact of COVID-stress and discrimination on college students’ resilience and mental health

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the impact of COVID-stress and discrimination on mental health among a group of diverse college students using an intersectional framework. Participants: One thousand six hundred seventy-one undergraduate students (M_age = 20.42, SD = 2.74) were recruited from nine college campuses. Methods: Participants completed an online questionnaire assessing mental health symptoms, COVID-stress, and in-school discrimination. Hierarchical regressions and multi-group SEM path analysis were conducted to examine differences across intersectional identities. Results: Female-identifying students reported higher COVID-stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and lower resilience compared to males. COVID-stress and discrimination were highest among certain minoritized student groups. Using an intersectional framework, more COVID-stress and discrimination were associated with increased anxiety for almost all women of color. Unexpectedly, COVID-stress predicted anxiety symptoms for almost all male intersectional groups. Conclusions: Findings reaffirm the intersectional framework and highlight significant disparities in how students experience COVID-stress, discrimination, and mental health outcomes along dimensions of gender and race/ethnicity.

Keywords:

• COVID
• discrimination
• gender
• mental health
• race/ethnicity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the students who completed our survey.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article was reviewed and met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the City University of New York.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, LCR, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.