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Marginalized Identities, Healthcare Discrimination, and Parental Stress about COVID-19.
A Meier1,2,3, C Kamp Dush2,3, A M VanBergen3
1College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota.
Journal of Marriage and the Family
|March 21, 2025
Summary
Marginalized parents, including women and racial/ethnic minorities, faced higher COVID-19 stress due to healthcare discrimination. This discrimination is a key factor linking marginalized identities to increased parental stress during the pandemic.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Sociology
- Psychology
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted the mental health of marginalized parents, including women, racial and ethnic minorities (REM), and sexual and gender minorities (SGM).
- Understanding these disparities requires examining marginalizing mechanisms, such as discrimination, rather than solely relying on identity categories as proxies for systemic inequities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess stress disparities among marginalized parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To investigate healthcare discrimination as a mediating mechanism for parental stress related to COVID-19.
Main Methods:
- Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze data from The National Couples' Health and Time Study, a US population-representative survey.
- The study examined associations between marginalized identities and parental stress about COVID-19, with healthcare discrimination as a mediator.
Main Results:
- Black parents, women, transgender/non-binary parents, and gay/lesbian/bisexual parents reported increased parental stress about COVID-19.
- Healthcare discrimination mediated the relationship between marginalized identities and parental stress.
- After accounting for healthcare discrimination, only being a woman remained directly associated with parental stress, alongside the indirect effect via discrimination.
Conclusions:
- Healthcare discrimination is a significant pathway contributing to heightened stress among marginalized parents.
- Elevated parental stress can have long-term consequences, potentially affecting children and communities.
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