Resilience to COVID-19: Socioeconomic Disadvantage Associated With Positive Caregiver–Youth Communication and Youth Preventative Actions

Abstract

Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with larger COVID-19 disease burdens and pandemic-related economic impacts. We utilized the longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study to understand how family- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage relate to disease burden, family communication, and preventative responses to the pandemic in over 6,000 youth-caregiver dyads. Data were collected at three timepoints (May–August 2020). Here, we show that both family- and neighborhood-level disadvantage were associated with caregivers' reports of greater family COVID-19 disease burden, less perceived exposure risk, more frequent caregiver-youth conversations about COVID-19 risk/prevention and reassurance, and greater youth preventative behaviors. Families with more socioeconomic disadvantage may be adaptively incorporating more protective strategies to reduce emotional distress and likelihood of COVID-19 infection. The results highlight the importance of caregiver-youth communication and disease-preventative practices for buffering the economic and disease burdens of COVID-19, along with policies and programs that reduce these burdens for families with socioeconomic disadvantage.

Location matters: Regional variation in association of community burden of COVID-19 with caregiver and youth worry

“…While caregiver worry covaried with youth worry ( Fig. 1 ), as reported previously ( Marshall et al, 2022 ), caregivers were generally more worried than youth about COVID-19 (Caregivers: M = 2.94, SEM = 0.01; Youth: M = 2.31, SEM = 0.01).…”

“…Alternatively, adolescents may be more resilient to external COVID-19-related stressors, in part because caregivers, teachers, and/or mentors may serve as supportive buffers for youth. Indeed, in a previous study, we showed that caregivers of families at greater risk of COVID-19 exposure were engaging in more frequent conversations with their children about COVID-19 risk/prevention and reassurance, with these youth also engaging in more preventative behaviors ( Marshall et al, 2022 ). Associations between family-level COVID-19-related stressors and youth's caregiver-reported externalizing and internalizing symptomatology were also more pronounced when their caregivers showed greater stress and anxiety ( Cohodes et al, 2021 ).…”

“…The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has more strongly impacted the physical and mental health of lower-than higher-income populations in the United States ( Karmakar et al, 2021 ), likely due to the social determinants of and inequities in risk of exposure, healthcare access, and abilities to engage in COVID-19-preventative behaviors ( Okonkwo et al, 2021 ). Nonetheless, we have shown that despite greater risks of COVID-19 exposure, lower-income populations (and/or those living in lower-income neighborhoods) report engaging in more preventative behaviors to combat its spread ( Marshall et al, 2022 ).…”

“…In May 2020, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development℠ Study (ABCD Study®, hereafter “ABCD”) began surveying its participants on how COVID-19 has influenced daily life ( Marshall et al, 2022 ; Pelham et al, 2021 ). Here, we report on caregivers’ and youths’ COVID-19-related worry levels.…”

“…Using county-level geocoded data of COVID-19 incidence and unemployment, we report, for the first time, the extent to which several community-level variables at 21 data-collection sites in 20 geographically diverse metropolitan regions are associated with caregivers’ and youths’ COVID-19-related emotional well-being. Given our past research suggesting that caregivers may be serving as buffers for youth's COVID-19-related worry ( Marshall et al, 2022 ), we hypothesized that caregiver (vs. youth) COVID-19-related worry would be more strongly influenced by community-level variables. Further, given regional differences in COVID-19-related burden ( Udalova, 2021 ), we hypothesized that these associations would differ by region.…”