Associations between living arrangement and sexual and gender minority stressors among university students since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective

To examine the associations between COVID-19-related living arrangements and sexual and gender minority (SGM)-related stressors (ie, identity concealment and familial rejection).

Participants

N = 478 SGM university students (M_age = 22 years, SD = 4.00).

Methods

SGM university students were surveyed cross-sectionally between May and August 2020 regarding SGM-related stressors and living arrangements since the start of COVID-19.

Results

Approximately half (48.7%) of the sample reported a living rearrangement to their parents’ home due to COVID-19. Living rearrangement to parents’ homes was associated with an increased degree of identity concealment (β [95% C.I.] = 0.62 [0.10, 1.15]; p = .020) and familial rejection (β [95% C.I.] = 1.56 [0.72, 2.41]; p < .001) since the start of COVID-19 compared to stably living without parents (34.3%). Stably living with parents (17.0%) was not associated with increased degree of SGM-related stressors compared to experiencing a living rearrangement.

Conclusions

Stakeholders must consider the unique identity-related vulnerabilities of SGM students living with parents and who experience living rearrangements due to COVID-19.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• familial rejection
• identity concealment
• minority stress
• parents
• university students

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States of America and received approval from the University of Maryland.

Additional information

Funding

Algarin acknowledges support from the National Institute of Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under grant number T32DA023356. Salerno acknowledges support from the National Institute of Mental Health (Award Number 1R36MH123043), and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (CDC; Award Number U48DP006382). Shrader acknowledges support from the National Institute of Minority Health Disparities (Award Number 1F31MD015988). Fish acknowledges support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Center for Child Health and Human Development grant P2CHD041041, Maryland Population Research Center. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or CDC.