Young Adults’ Perceived Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Sleep and Other Functioning: Does It Differ for Sexual/Gender and Racial/Ethnic Minorities?

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been concern that the pandemic and associated mitigation efforts would have a particularly adverse effect on communities that are marginalized. This study examined disparities in the perceived impacts of the pandemic on sleep, mental and physical health, social functioning, and substance use among young adults based on sexual/gender minority (SGM) status and race/ethnicity.

Method

Participants were 2,411 young adults (mean age = 23.6) surveyed between July 2020-July 2021. A linear regression analysis tested SGM and racial/ethnic group differences on 17 outcomes.

Results

Most young adults reported little-to-no effect of the pandemic on sleep or other indicators of health and functioning. However, SGM young adults reported more adverse effects than non-SGM young adults on their sleep and most other outcomes. Hispanic young adults reported shorter sleep duration – but less pandemic-related depression, loneliness, and relationship problems – compared to non-Hispanic white young adults. We found no evidence that young adults with multiple minority statuses had especially poor pandemic-related outcomes.

Conclusions

While most young adults did not perceive much impact of the pandemic, results highlight disparities across certain demographic subgroups that may need to be addressed through targeted interventions and close monitoring for long-term effects.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the study participants and districts and schools who participated and supported the CHOICE project. We also thank Jennifer Parker for overseeing the web-based survey administration.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism under Grants R01AA016577, R01AA020883, and R01AA025848 (PI: D’Amico).