Perceived stress of individuals with disabilities in the United States during COVID-19.

Abstract

This study was conducted to better understand how COVID-19 has impacted the stress, resiliency, and quality of life of people with disabilities near the height of the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in the summer of 2020. Research Method/Design: An online survey of 990 individuals who self-identified as having at least one disability in the United States was conducted. Results: Quality of life, coping/resilience skills, number of identified disabilities, and age were all significantly related to perceived stress. While access to technology was not significantly related to perceived stress, increased use of technology since the pandemic was associated with increased reported stress, though the practical significance was small. Conclusions/Implications: There is a need for increased attention to dissemination of information to people with disabilities. Knowledge of medical rights was significantly associated with following social distancing practices and suggests that health knowledge does change behavior. Ensuring that people with disabilities are aware of coping skills and how to promote resilience is a needed area of focus for the field. Impact and ImplicationsLarge n survey research is presented assessing COVID quality of life and stressors for people with disabilities. Cross-disability perspective at the height of first COVID surge in the United States was studied. More awareness of health care rights is needed, especially in crisis scenarios. Renewed attention to promoting coping/resilience skills for people with disabilities is needed.

Academic Coverage of Social Stressors Experienced by Disabled People: A Scoping Review

“…Other phrases used were: visually impaired people [184]; in the blind [185]; blind patient [186]; going blind [187]; people with disabilities [4,188,189]; individuals with disabilities [145,190]; wheelchair bound people [188]; those confined to wheelchairs [188]; wheelchair user [191,192]; persons with incomplete spinal cord injury [193]; children and adolescents with sickle cell [194,195]; students with dyslexia [196]; athletes with a disability [197]; working disabled population [198]; youth with chronic pain [199]; chronic disability [200]; the physically disabled [201]; persons with physical disabilities [202]; ado-lescents with intellectual disability [203]; people with mild intellectual disabilities [204]; and people with intellectual disabilities [205] and learning disabilities [206].…”

“…As to the origin of the stressor, the disability being the stressor was flagged in 14 abstracts [159,161,164,166,170,174,177,187,193,195,199,203,205,206], the social environment being the stressor in 17 abstracts [4,155,156,163,164,[178][179][180][181][182]186,188,189,192,[196][197][198], and the environment and the disability as stressors in four [168,172,190,191]. In 14 abstracts, it is not clear whether the stress was seen to be caused by the disability or the social environment or both [157,158,160,162,164,165,167,169,173,175,183,185,…”

“…Four studies flagged the environment and the disability as stressors [168,172,190,191], such as one study measuring disability-related stress in wheelchair users using the disability stress scale, which found "4 main factors of disability-related stress: access accounted for 33.7% of the variance, physical for 8.4% of the variance, social for 7.9% of the variance, and burden of care for 7.2% of the variance" [191] (p. 1260). Another listed the following stressors: "children with autism spectrum disorder experienced stressors of daily living, which included environmental stimuli, academic and behavioral expectations, deviations in routine, behavioral expectations, and emotional control, and stressors of socializing, which included bullying, communication, personal interactions, conflict resolution, and difficulty understanding others' emotions", and then indicated the cause was the disability and environment when stating "Stressors resulted from the core symptoms and characteristic behaviors of autism spectrum disorders, and also Taiwanese cultural expectations" [168] (p. 206).…”

“…Within these 52 abstracts, the 'disability' was identified in 14 abstracts as the stressor [159,161,164,166,170,174,177,187,193,195,199,203,205,206] and the social environment in 17 abstracts [4,155,156,163,164,[178][179][180][181][182]186,188,189,192,[196][197][198]. Four studies flagged the social environment and the 'disability' as stressors [168,172,190,191]. In 14 abstracts, it is not clear whether the disability or the social environment or both were seen as the origin of the stressor [157,158,160,162,164,165,167,169,173,175,183,185,…”