Date of Conferral

6-4-2025

Date of Award

June 2025

Degree

Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)

School

Public Health

Advisor

Richard Jimenez

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, African American adolescents experienced reduced access to needed resources and may have suffered poorer mental health outcomes as a result. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the association between race and the availability of mental health resources, food, medical health resources and mental health outcomes among African American adolescents in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to their White counterparts. The theoretical framework that grounded this study was the Socio Ecological Model. Secondary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey database were analyzed. These data were collected in 2021 from student participants in ninth to 12th grade from 339 schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia (N = 7,705). The chi-square value (357.642) was statistically significant (p < .001), which indicates there was a strong relationship between mental health outcomes and race, access to mental health services, access to food/proper nutrition, and access to medical services during COVID-19 among adolescents in the United States. The key result suggests that needed resources may not be equitably accessible to youths of various races and may result in higher levels of adverse mental health experiences among African American adolescents, especially during public health emergencies. The results of this study have potential implications for sustainable positive social change because these findings could be used to help guide public health policies for providing a more equitable mental health resources distribution in the future.

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