The COVID-19 pandemic is requiring unprecedented response policies, including stay-at-home orders, closing of schools and non-essential businesses and services, and travel restrictions. As these policies are implemented, profound residential segregation in the US also creates differences in the backdrop of conditions faced by lower-income, minority communities, compared with others. Understanding how housing conditions, neighborhood socioeconomic conditions, access to basic services, and community sentiment affects people’s experiences of the pandemic is important because reducing the spread of the disease and burden on the public health system depends critically on people staying at home. This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project will examine how characteristics of built and social environments influence the impacts of COVID-19 and associated response policies on risk perceptions, mental health, financial well-being, and food security for residents in disinvested, racially isolated, urban areas. Our approach advances the science of risk perception and models of community vulnerability and resilience. The data and insights will help policymakers to target assistance toward individuals and neighborhoods most in need of support during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research will also assist planning for post-pandemic recovery among the most vulnerable in US society.
The project builds on an existing longitudinal panel study of residents in two neighborhoods participating in the Pittsburgh Hill/Homewood Research on Neighborhoods and Health (PHRESH). The randomly selected PHRESH cohort comprises 1,000 households for which data have been collected since 2011 on food security and access, home conditions, resilience, physical and mental health, social cohesion, and extensive sociodemographic data. A randomly selected subsample of 500 individuals from the PHRESH cohort will be administered a telephone survey that includes new questions about: COVID-19 illness and policy experiences; neighborhood perceptions and satisfaction; cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements of perceived risk; and impacts on mental health, financial well-being, and food security. This project will test the hypotheses that COVID-19 and associated policies impact risk responses, mental health outcomes, financial well-being, and food security, with 1) social and built environment characteristics either amplifying or reducing (i.e., moderating) the effect of COVID-19 and 2) community sentiment such as neighborhood perceptions and satisfaction potentially explaining (i.e., mediating) any significant associations between COVID-19 and study outcomes.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
