Pepperdine University Reports Findings in COVID-19 (Financial Stress Among Latino Adults in California During COVID-19): Coronavirus – COVID-19

2022 APR 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Coronavirus - COVID-19 is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Malibu, California, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “We study the impact of COVID-19 on stress, and especially on financial stress, among Latino adults in California. We take a mixed methods approach and rely on quantitative and qualitative data for our analysis.”

Financial supporters for this research include Federal Reserve of Minneapolis - Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute, Pepperdine University.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Pepperdine University, “We recruited 84 low- and moderate-income (LMI) Latino adults in California through the Understanding America Study (UAS) Internet Panel who also participated in the Mobile Financial Diary (MFD) project, which took place during 2018 - 2019. We analyze data about personal experiences during COVID-19 in October 2020 and compare this to data collected during the period from August to October 2018. Our study portrays the experiences of California Latino adults who were predominantly born in the USA and are likely to be working and speak English. We also observe that a large percentage of our participants had health insurance and relatively high levels of educational attainment. We find contradictory results from our quantitative measures, where one of our indicators of financial behavior and well-being showed a significant increase (Financial Health Score), and the other (Financial Well-Being Scale) showed a significant decrease during COVID-19. Anxiety (GAD-7) and depression (PHQ) measures show no significant changes during COVID-19 in comparison to 2018. Nonetheless, our qualitative data analysis shows that many of our participants were experiencing major stressors during the pandemic associated with labor market experiences and family circumstances. In our qualitative data analysis, we also observe that women seemed to have been affected the most by the pandemic.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Financial Stress Among Latino Adults in California During COVID-19. Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 2021:1-15.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Vanessa Cruz, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA 90265, United States. Additional authors for this research include Luisa Blanco, Deja Frederick and Susie Herrera.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41996-021-00087-0. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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