Sociodemographic factors as moderators of COVID-19 stress on depression

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many aspects of daily life, but relatively little is known about COVID-19-related stress for subgroups in the population. We examined differences in COVID-stress and depression as a function of gender, race, ethnicity, and subjective social status. We tested these factors as moderators of the association between COVID-stress and depression.

Design

We used a cross-sectional design to test associations between sociodemographic factors, COVID-stress, and depression. Analyses were based on confirmatory factor analytic and structural equations models.

Methods

A convenience sample of 1,058 U.S. MTurk workers and college students (54.5% cisgender women; 55.1% racial/ethnic minoritized individuals) was recruited. Participants completed self-report measures of COVID-stress and depression.

Results

COVID-stress was positively associated with depression. Overall, neither gender nor racial minoritized status moderated COVID-stress effects on depression. However, intersectional analyses revealed COVID-stress was a significant risk factor for depression among Black women compared to other participants. COVID-stress was more strongly linked to depression for Hispanic individuals and participants with higher social status.

Conclusions

Future studies may benefit from the COVID-stress scale evaluated in this study and by considering the differential effects of sociodemographic factors on psychological functioning during the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• stress
• depression
• health disparities

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Hannah Keenan for her assistance with COVID-related trends and manuscript preparation. There is no funding associated with the present study. Data associated with this research project are available upon request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For the remainder of the article, any gender-related text can be understood to refer to cisgender women or men.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.