Psychology

COVID-19 and Americans’ Mental Health: A Persistent Crisis, Especially for Emerging Adults 18 to 29

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused not only millions of hospitalizations and over a million deaths in the United States but a widespread and enduring mental health crisis. The present study examined the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression in a large sample of American adults from prior to the pandemic through the summer of 2024, using data from the National Health Interview Survey in 2019 and the Household Pulse Survey from early 2020 onward. The data indicate a steep rise in symptoms of anxiety and depression from 2019 to 2020, across adult age groups but especially among the youngest adults ages 18 to 29. Furthermore, high rates of anxiety and depression persisted through 2023, even though by then there were no requirements for social isolation or social distancing and no major disruptions to daily life. Rates of anxiety and depression declined in early 2024 but remain well above 2019 rates, across adult age groups. Emerging adults may have been especially vulnerable to the mental health effects of COVID-19 because of its disruption to distinctive developmental processes such as identity formation and progress toward independent decision-making and financial self-sufficiency. However, there is an urgent need for more information about why mental health distress is persisting across all adult age groups and for more effective responses to the massive unmet need for mental health treatment.

Publication Title

Journal of Adult Development

Publication Date

2024

ISSN

1068-0667

DOI

10.1007/s10804-024-09502-w

Keywords

anxiety, COVID-19, depression, emerging adults, mental health

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS