State Policy and Mental Health Outcomes under COVID-19
Name
state policy and mental health outcomes under covid-19.pdf
Size
445.22 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3de383b31dc021649f24c9255ff7e624
Author(s)
Sances, Michael W.
Campbell, Andrea Louise
Date Issued
March 19, 2021
Journal
Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law
Publisher
Duke University Press
Citation
Sances, Michael W. and Campbell, Andrea Louise. 2021. "State Policy and Mental Health Outcomes under COVID-19." Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law, 46 (5).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Abstract
Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused enormous damage to physiological health and economic security, especially among racial and ethnic minorities. We examined downstream effects on mental health, how effects vary by race and ethnicity, and the role of existing state-level social policies in softening the pandemic's impact. Methods: We analyze an online, multi-wave Census Bureau survey fielded to nearly a million respondents between late April and July 2020. The survey includes questions measuring psychological distress as well as indirect measures of experience with the pandemic. We combined these data with state-level measures of COVID-19 cases, lockdown orders, unemployment filings, and safety net policy. Findings: We find significant mental stress among all respondents and a sizeable gap between nonwhite and white respondents. Adjusting for pandemic experiences eliminates this gap. The effect of losing work as a result of the pandemic is slightly offset by state policies such as unemployment benefit size and Medicaid expansion. The magnitude of these offsetting effects is similar across racial/ethnic groups. Conclusions: The racialized impacts of the pandemic are exacerbated by inequalities in state policy exemplifying structural racism. If the least generous states matched the policies of the most generous, inequalities caused by the pandemic would be diminished.
Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused enormous damage to physiological health and economic security, especially among racial and ethnic minorities. We examined downstream effects on mental health, how effects vary by race and ethnicity, and the role of existing state-level social policies in softening the pandemic's impact. Methods: We analyze an online, multi-wave Census Bureau survey fielded to nearly a million respondents between late April and July 2020. The survey includes questions measuring psychological distress as well as indirect measures of experience with the pandemic. We combined these data with state-level measures of COVID-19 cases, lockdown orders, unemployment filings, and safety net policy. Findings: We find significant mental stress among all respondents and a sizeable gap between nonwhite and white respondents. Adjusting for pandemic experiences eliminates this gap. The effect of losing work as a result of the pandemic is slightly offset by state policies such as unemployment benefit size and Medicaid expansion. The magnitude of these offsetting effects is similar across racial/ethnic groups. Conclusions: The racialized impacts of the pandemic are exacerbated by inequalities in state policy exemplifying structural racism. If the least generous states matched the policies of the most generous, inequalities caused by the pandemic would be diminished.
Subjects
Health Policy
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-9155991
