Socioeconomic disadvantages and vulnerability to the pandemic among children and youth: A macro-level investigation of American counties

Bocong Yuan; Xinting Huang; Jiannan Li; Longtao He

doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106429

Socioeconomic disadvantages and vulnerability to the pandemic among children and youth: A macro-level investigation of American counties

Child Youth Serv Rev. 2022 May:136:106429. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106429. Epub 2022 Feb 23.

Authors

Bocong Yuan¹, Xinting Huang², Jiannan Li³, Longtao He⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
² School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
³ Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, China.
⁴ Research Institute of Social Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

This study intends to reveal the underlying structural inequity in vulnerability to infection of the novel coronavirus disease pandemic among children and youth. Using multi-source data from New York Times novel coronavirus disease tracking project and County Health Rankings & Roadmap Program, this study shows that children and youth in socioeconomically disadvantaged status are faced with disproportionate risk of infection in this pandemic. On the county level, socioeconomic disadvantages (i.e., single parent family, low birthweight, severe housing problems) contribute to the confirmed cases and death cases of the novel coronavirus disease. Policymakers should pay more attention to this vulnerable group to implement more targeted and effective epidemic prevention and control.

Keywords: Children and youth; Health risk; Pandemic; Socioeconomic disadvantages.