Exploring the Disparate Impact of COVID-19 on Undergraduate Students: A Mixed-Methods Study

• In Event: The Impact of COVID-19 on College Student Experiences

Abstract

COVID-19 has had a disproportionately negative economic and health impact on Black, Latinx, and low-income communities. As undergraduates are particularly vulnerable to external shocks, this mixed-methods study describes the health and economic impact among undergraduates at an urban, minority-serving public university (N = 19,987) through responses to a web-based Qualtrics questionnaire (n = 1272), before examining how these shocks influenced psychosocial and academic experiences through student interviews. Results showed that First-Gen, Pell grant eligible, Latinx, and North African/Middle Eastern students were more likely to report COVID-19 infection, and that negative economic impacts were higher among the same populations. Interviews indicate that community and individual-level factors mediated academic and psychosocial effects. Implications for university administrators are discussed.

Authors

• Alexios Rosario-Moore, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Kara Graham, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Svetlana Mitric, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Gabriela Avila, University of Illinois at Chicago