High school students' pandemic adversity and behavioral health: Evidence from the adolescent behaviors and experiences survey.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created unique challenges for adolescents, impacting their well-being. The present study sought to answer the questions: (a) What are the latent classes of youth according to their self-reported adverse experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic? (b) To what extent do behavioral health outcomes differ across these latent classes? And (c) to what extent do youth sociodemographic characteristics predict latent class membership? This study used data from a nationally representative sample of United States high school students who completed the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey in early 2021. Latent class analysis categorized youth based on their self-reported pandemic-related adversities, including parental and personal job loss, food insecurity, physical and verbal abuse in the home, social disconnection, and difficulty with schoolwork. Most participants were assigned to the class labeled generalized lower adversity, followed by the heightened academic and/or economic stressors class, and finally, the heightened adverse home experiences class. Across the three classes, significant differences in proportions of latent class members reporting poor mental health, increased alcohol use, and increased drug use during the pandemic were found. In addition, identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning was consistently associated with higher odds of membership in a higher risk latent class. Conducted to inform school crisis preparedness efforts, this study highlights opportunities for strengthening universal and targeted prevention systems, and tailoring supports for student subpopulations during societal crises and schooling disruptions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).