Impact of COVID-19 Mitigation Measures on Inner-City Female Youth in New York City

Abstract

Purpose: New York City (NYC) was the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. A "shelter in place" mandate was issued in March 2020. The effect on vulnerable populations of adolescent and young adult females has not been well documented.

Methods: We administered a monthly online survey between May and November 2020 to adolescent and young adult females participating in a longitudinal study at Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center. Surveys asked about death of loved ones, financial impacts, social interactions, exposure to dangerous situations, and mental health impacts. Differences in responses by age, race/ethnicity, and living situation were assessed, and compared to data obtained on the same cohort prior to the pandemic.

Results: Four hundred seventeen females aged 15-28 years completed at least one survey, 94% of whom were youth of color. A third of responders (33%) had lost relatives or other people they were close to (loved ones). Most (68%) reported one or more financial losses, and 21% reported food insecurity, with those not living with parents or a guardian experiencing significantly higher rates. One in 10 reported experiencing sexual abuse or interpersonal partner violence during the "shelter in place" period. Over a third (37%) reported symptoms of clinical depression, which represented a significant increase compared to before the pandemic (p = .01). The negative financial impacts and higher proportion of patients with depressive symptomatology remained elevated for adolescents without support at home.

Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic had unprecedented negative short-term financial and psychosocial health impacts on inner-city female youth with potential long-term negative impacts.

Keywords: Abuse; Adolescent and young adult; COVID-19 pandemic; Depression; Food insecurity; Interpersonal violence; financial loss; “Shelter in place”.

Figure 1

Financial impacts during pandemic by living situation. Shown are the proportions (with 95% CI) of AYA females reporting any financial loss, lack of basic needs, and food insecurity (left), and loss of health insurance, emergency food needed, and loss of housing (right) during “shelter in place” period. “Kids” = young mothers living with kids; “No Parent” = AYA females living alone, with a partner or friends (but not a parent or guardian); “Parent” = living with a parent or guardian.

Figure 2

Financial loss and food insecurity during pandemic by living situation. Shown are the proportions (with 95% CI) of AYA females reporting any financial loss (left) and food insecurity (right) over the 6-month period following the start of the pandemic, excluding young mothers with children. “No Parent” = AYA females living alone, with a partner or friends (but not a parent or guardian), dashed line with circles; “With Parent” = living with a parent or guardian, solid line with diamonds.

Figure 3

Reports of abuse and interpersonal violence since start of pandemic. Shown are the proportions (with 95% CI) of AYA females reporting any partner or interpersonal violence (left) and sexual victimization or abuse alone (right) over the 6-month period following the start of the pandemic. Results are shown separately for AYA females with a partner who was 5 or more years older than them (dashed line; “Partner Older”) and those whose partners were of similar age to them (solid line; “Partner Same Age”).

Figure 4

Proportion of inner-city AYA females with symptoms of clinical depression during the pandemic. The graph shows the proportions (with 95% CI) of AYA females reporting symptoms of clinical depression (based on the 10-item CES-D scale) over the 6-month period following the start of the pandemic. The results depicted as “Before” reflect the proportion of the AYA females reporting symptoms of clinical depression at the last study visit conducted before the pandemic measured using the 20-item version of the CES-D. Results are shown separately for females less than 21 years of age (dashed line) and females 21 years or older (solid line).