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Multidimensional Hardships in the U.S. During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Abstract

In this paper, for the first time, we provide monthly estimates of multidimensional hardships experienced by Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compile data from the Census’s Household Pulse Survey on job insecurity, food insufficiency, housing insecurity, and mental health. Our analysis covers two years of the pandemic, beginning in April 2020 and ending in March 2022. We find that during these two years, 16.3% of adults, on average, experienced two or more hardships simultaneously. At the peaks of the hardship crises in July and December 2020, approximately 20% or one in five adults experienced two or more hardships. The most common hardships experienced by Americans during the pandemic were job insecurity and mental health. Multidimensional hardships were more prevalent among Black and Hispanic adults and less among White and Asian adults. Our results underscore the fact that the pandemic compounded hardships experienced by Americans and left a long-lasting impact on their well-being.

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Notes

  1. COVID-19 Death Data and Resources—National Vital Statistics System (cdc.gov).

  2. See States that issued lockdown and stay-at-home orders in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020—Ballotpedia.

  3. See Villarosa (2020) and Kolata (2021) in the New York Times.

  4. See technical documentation including questionnaires, methodology, and source and accuracy statements at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/household-pulse-survey/technical-documentation.html.

  5. These were the only hardships we could find consistent data on in the HPS. Appendix Table A1 lists all the responses to the relevant survey questions. We do not include data on household incomes as it is collected in broad categories in the HPS. Similarly, data on self-reported health status is not compiled consistently over time.

  6. The job insecurity rate for December 2020 was not significantly different than the job insecurity rate for January 2021.

  7. See https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/technical-documentation/hhp/2020_HPS_NR_Bias_Report-final.pdf for more information on non-response bias in the HPS.

  8. We follow the Alkire and Foster (2011) methodology to estimate multidimensional poverty indices. See Dhongde and Haveman (2022) for a review of the literature using the Alkire and Foster (2011) methodology to estimate multidimensional poverty in the United States. For additional examples from other countries, see https://ophi.org.uk/publications/ophi-working-papers/

  9. Standard errors for each of the three indices are calculated using replicate weights in the HPS. The formula is: \(SE\left(X\right)=\sqrt{\frac{4}{80}\sum_{r=1}^{80}{\left({x}_{r}-x\right)}^{2}}\) where \({x}_{r}\) is the estimate using the rth replicate weight and \(x\) is the estimate using the sample weight.

  10. We estimated that 5.8 percent experienced hardship in three or more indicators \(\left(k= 3\right)\) and only 1.3 percent of surveyed adults experienced all four hardships \(\left(k= 4\right)\).

  11. In Fig. 2, MHI, OPM, and SPM are expressed in percentages and COVID-19 cases as absolute numbers. The OPM rate used is an annual poverty rate that uses rolling 12-month reference periods. The universe for the MHI is adults age 18 and over, while the universe for OPM and SPM is the total U.S. population.

  12. The MHI rate in July 2020 was not significantly different than the MHI rate in December 2020.

  13. The difference in mental health hardship rates between the South and West regions was not statistically significant.

  14. While discussing our results, we simply refer to Black non-Hispanics as Blacks and so on for brevity.

  15. In Fig. 5 in the Appendix, we compile data on each of the hardships from different data sources in the pre-pandemic years with the caveat that the pre and post pandemic trends are not exactly comparable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA

    Shatakshee Dhongde

  2. U.S. Census Bureau, Washington D.C., USA

    Brian Glassman

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  1. Shatakshee Dhongde
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  2. Brian Glassman
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Correspondence to Shatakshee Dhongde.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 5, 6, 7 and Fig. 5.

Table 5 Hardship Indicators and Average% of Individuals with Hardship
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Table 6 Differences between item responders and item non-responders population
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Table 7 Statewide Estimates of Average MHI
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See Fig. 5.

Fig. 5
figure 5

Trends in Hardship Indicators in Pre-Pandemic Years. We compile data on hardship indicators in the pre-pandemic years from different sources, since the HPS data is available only from April 2020.

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  1. (1)

    Housing insecurity: Gross rent or monthly owner cost equal to or in excess of 50% of household income among adults 18 and above (American Community Survey)

  2. (2)

    Food insufficiency: Food bought didn’t last and we didn’t have enough money to get more in the last 30 days (Current Population Survey – Food Security Supplement)

  3. (3)

    Job insecurity: Based on economic security dimension of the Multidimensional Deprivation Index (Glassman, 2021). Defined by unemployment or living in a household with a tenuous connection to the labor market (American Community Survey)

  4. (4)

    Mental health:% of population experiencing not good mental health days between 14 and 30 days in the previous month (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System)

  5. (5)

    MHI: The Census Multidimensional Deprivation Index (Glassman, 2021).

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Dhongde, S., Glassman, B. Multidimensional Hardships in the U.S. During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Soc Indic Res 169, 883–905 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-023-03176-9

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