A longitudinal investigation of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on 2SLGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness

Alex Abramovich; Nelson Pang; Kawon Victoria Kim; Rowen K Stark; Shannon Lange; Michael Chaiton; Carmen H Logie; Hayley A Hamilton; Sean A Kidd

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0288591

A longitudinal investigation of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on 2SLGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness

PLoS One. 2023 Jul 17;18(7):e0288591. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288591. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Alex Abramovich^{1

2

3}, Nelson Pang^{1

4}, Kawon Victoria Kim¹, Rowen K Stark¹, Shannon Lange¹, Michael Chaiton¹, Carmen H Logie⁴, Hayley A Hamilton¹, Sean A Kidd³

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
² Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Introduction: The objective of this study was to examine the impacts of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on various dimensions of wellbeing among 2SLGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness over a 12-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: 2SLGBTQ+ youth (recruited using a convenience sampling method) participated in three online surveys to assess mental health (depression, anxiety, suicidality), substance and alcohol use, health care access, and violence for 12-months between 2021-2022. Quantitative data analysis included non-parametric one-sample proportion tests, paired t-test and McNemar's test. Longitudinal data collected across all three timepoints were treated as paired data and compared to baseline data using non-parametric exact multinomial tests, and if significant, followed by pairwise post-hoc exact binomial tests. For the purposes of analysis, participants were grouped according to their baseline survey based on pandemic waves and public health restrictions.

Results: 2SLGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness (n = 87) reported high rates of mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression, over 12-months during the pandemic. Youth participants reported experiencing poor mental health during the early waves of the pandemic, with improvements to their mental health throughout the pandemic; however, results were not statistically significant. Likewise, participants experienced reduced access to mental health care during the early waves of the pandemic but mental health care access increased for youth throughout the pandemic.

Conclusion: Study results showed high rates of mental health issues among 2SLGBTQ+ youth, but reduced access to mental health care, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings highlight the need for 2SLGBTQ+ inclusive and affirming mental health care and services to address social and mental health issues that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Copyright: © 2023 Abramovich et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Humans
Ill-Housed Persons*
Pandemics
Social Problems
Violence

Grants and funding

Funding for this research study was provided by Making the Shift (MtS) Network of Centres of Excellence (https://makingtheshiftinc.ca/). AA was awarded this 2020 MtS COVID-19 targeted call, Grant # R900206526. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.