The early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020 to June 2021), encompassing full or partial closures and staggered re-openings of schools and businesses, greatly affected the daily lives and economic and social dynamics of adolescents and adults. Research has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic and related changes to schooling and household economics (including parental job loss) affected adolescent mental health, sleep, academic attainment, and family relationships, including patterns of abuse [1–4].

Isolation resulting from closures of businesses and schools, and other major changes to social interactions or daily living (e.g., more time spent at home with family members), early in the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant increases compared to pre-pandemic levels in depressive symptoms and anxiety among adolescents [1–3]. Additionally, sleep disturbances were examined in nearly 20% of studies included in the systematic review, with 55.6% of adolescents reporting difficulty sleeping [2]. Short sleep is a noted risk factor for adverse mental health outcomes among adolescents [5, 6].

For US students, 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, was a period of pronounced changes in schooling, with many students going to full-time remote learning or a hybrid modality (partial remote and partial in-person learning); in some cases, school closures and use of hybrid modality persisted into 2021 [7]. Research using COVID Experiences Survey data from October to November 2020 found US students aged 13–19 years who were in virtual learning were more likely to report high or very high stress (44.7% vs. 25.0%), report persistent depression symptoms (19.1% vs. 7.6%), and be considering suicide (13.5% vs. 3.8%) compared to students learning at school [8]. Negative effects of remote schooling [8, 9] may have been offset by the concomitant decrease in bullying reported across multiple countries, including the United States [10, 11].

In addition to changes in schooling, traditional or usual work routines were altered for a large percentage of Americans, both adults and adolescents. Data from Google Consumer Surveys from April through May 2020 revealed that approximately 35% of sampled US adult workers shifted from in-person jobs to remote work, while 10% reported being laid off or furloughed [12]. The US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey data from June 2020 indicated a higher percentage of exposure to employment loss among young adults, with 59% of sampled US workers aged 18–26 years reporting direct or household employment loss since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic [13]. An April 2020 cross-sectional study found that US adult workers who had lost their jobs during the pandemic reported higher symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress compared to workers whose employment was unchanged [14]. Additionally, US adult workers who lost a job between March 1 and June 25, 2020, reported twice the number of mentally unhealthy days than those who did not lose a job [15].

Parental job loss during the pandemic often led to household economic uncertainty and disrupted family dynamics, with adverse consequences for household children and adolescents: such job loss was a predictor for increases in parent–child conflict and negative child affect [4, 16, 17]. A study of Colorado middle and high school students found that prevalence of emotional and physical abuse at home among students with an unemployed parent during the COVID-19 pandemic were significantly higher than among students whose parents had retained jobs during the pandemic [18]. The increased child maltreatment associated with job loss during the pandemic aligns with prior research examining the family stress model, where increased child maltreatment and parent–child conflict are associated with familial economic insecurity [19].

Most studies on the employment-related effects of COVID-19 have focused on adult workers, with very limited research examining the potential effects that changes to student employment status may have on adolescent health. Research has shown that young adults (aged 18–26 years) who reported job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced higher risks for symptoms of anxiety, worry, loss of interest, and depression [13]. However, data sources that would allow exploration of these same outcomes among adolescent workers are limited.

The Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES) study was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from January through June 2021 to collect nationally representative data on US high school students, with a focus on assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health-related experiences and behaviors among these students. Previous studies have used these data to explore student mental health and abuse by parents during the pandemic, including some examination of the effects of parental job loss [20–22]. To date, research has not assessed the effects of student job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study expands this research by using ABES data to examine differences in adverse mental health outcomes, sleep sufficiency, and abuse by a household adult among US high school students by student and parental employment status before and job loss early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study sample was 50.4% female and 49.6% male, with 49.8% of the sample reporting White, non-Hispanic as their race/ethnicity (Table 2). Additionally, the percentage of the sample fell slightly as grade level increased with 26.7% in 9th grade and 23.6% in 12th grade. Among all students in the sample, 9.0% reported they had lost jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 59.8% reported not working before the COVID-19 pandemic (Table 2). For parental employment status, 27.4% of students reported parental job loss during the pandemic, and 3.7% of students reported their parent was not working before the pandemic. Non-Hispanic White and 12th grade students were more likely to be employed before the pandemic and to lose their jobs during the pandemic compared to their counterparts by race/ethnicity and grade level, respectively. By demographic characteristics, female, Hispanic, and 10th grade students reported the highest percentages of parental job loss during the pandemic.

As shown in Table 3, the most common experience reported was emotional abuse by a parent (55.1%; 95% CI: 52.4–57.8). Adverse mental health outcomes were also highly prevalent among students, and female students reported more than twice the prevalence of several adverse mental health outcomes compared to their male counterparts. The different grade levels showed similar prevalence for the adverse mental health outcomes, short sleep, and abuse by parent with the exception of physical abuse by parent; 9th grade students reported twice the abuse than 12th grade students (14.3% vs. 7.7%) (Table 3). Prevalences of adverse mental health outcomes, short sleep, and parental abuse varied across the race and ethnicity groups. Other or multi-race students reported the highest prevalence of emotional abuse by parent (61.5%), and Black, non-Hispanic students reported the highest prevalence of physical abuse by parent (15.0%) when compared to the other race and ethnicity groups. Compared to the other race and ethnicity groups, Black, non-Hispanic students reported the lowest prevalence for each mental health outcome and the highest prevalence of short sleep (60.3%).

Among students reporting job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence for each mental health outcome and emotional abuse by a parent was significantly elevated compared to prevalence among students who did not have a job pre-pandemic and who did not lose their job during the COVID-19 pandemic (Table 4). Students who lost their job during the COVID-19 pandemic had a prevalence of 43.7% for poor mental health during the past 30 days compared to 30.1% for those who had no job before the pandemic and 29.2% for those who retained their job. Students reporting job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic had statistically significant elevations for each of the adverse mental health outcomes, short sleep (aPR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.03–1.28), and emotional abuse by a parent (aPR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.13–1.35). Among students who had no job or before the pandemic or retained their jobs, prevalences for both emotional (53.9% vs. 53.6%, respectively) and physical (10.5% vs. 11.6%, respectively) abuse by a parent were similar. The emotional and physical abuse aPRs for students who had no job were both below 1.0. Physical abuse by a parent was the only outcome that was not significantly elevated for students reporting job loss compared to students who retained jobs during the pandemic. There were no significant differences between students who were unemployed before the pandemic and those who retained their jobs.

Parental job loss was also associated with adverse outcomes. Students reporting parental job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic had a significantly higher prevalence of poor mental health during the pandemic (46.2%) compared to students whose parents had no job before the pandemic (33.1%) or who did not lose their job (33.9%) (Table 5). Compared to students whose parents retained jobs during the pandemic, the aPRs for students whose parents lost jobs were statistically significant for all adverse mental health outcomes, emotional abuse by a parent (1.17; CI: 1.11–1.24), and physical abuse by a parent (1.63; CI: 1.36–1.95). Physical abuse by a parent was also elevated among students whose parents did not have jobs before the pandemic (1.48; CI: 0.99–2.22), with the result approaching statistical significance. For all other outcomes, prevalences were similar among students whose parents were unemployed before the pandemic and those whose parents retained their jobs. The aPR for physical abuse by a parent (1.63; CI: 1.36–1.95) among students reporting parental job loss was statistically significant (Table 4). Student job loss compared to student job retention was associated with a lower, nonsignificant elevation for physical abuse by a parent (1.21; CI: 0.90–1.63) (Table 5). Students reporting job loss had higher prevalence figures for all adverse mental health outcomes, short sleep, and emotional abuse by a parent compared to students reporting parental job loss, although CIs overlapped for some outcomes (Tables 4 and 5).

For student and parental employment status, the prevalence figures for emotional abuse for a parent were high (50%–70%) and the aPRs for student job loss and parental job loss were statistically significant (1.30 and 1.32, respectively) (Tables 4 and 5). Prevalence estimates decreased to approximately 30%–40% but remained statistically significant for both student and parent job loss when a more stringent categorization of emotional abuse by a parent was used (Appendix A).

This study found that adverse mental health was common among high school students in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and that student and parental job loss during the pandemic were associated with worse mental health outcomes, as well as abuse by a parent. Student job loss was most strongly associated with poor mental health during the past 30 days and during the pandemic. Persistent feelings of sadness, short sleep, and emotional abuse by a parent were also statistically significant among students reporting job loss, while physical abuse by a parent was not significantly associated with student job loss. In contrast, parental job loss was strongly associated with physical abuse by a parent and, to a lesser but still statistically significant extent, adverse mental health outcomes and emotional abuse by a parent. While only parental job loss was associated with physical abuse by a parent, both student and parental job loss were associated with adverse mental health outcomes, and students reporting job loss had higher prevalences of adverse mental health outcomes.

The results of this study align with pre-pandemic findings that economic and other stressors are associated with increased emotional and physical abuse throughout childhood by a parent [18, 28, 29]. Material hardships and parental mental health (e.g., stress, depression) are well-established risk factors for child maltreatment [30–34]. A systematic review of pre-pandemic studies primarily within the US found housing stress was associated with an increased likelihood of caregiver or child self-reported maltreatment and child protective services reports [31]. Analyses of 2009–2018 US county-level data found that higher food insecurity rates were significantly associated with increased child mal-treatment rates [32]. Changes to a family’s disposable income may also be a predictor of increased child maltreatment [35]. Parental characteristics including anger, personal stress, and self-esteem were all statistically significant child abuse risk factors according to a 2009 meta-analysis [34]. Employment status, including job loss, is likely to influence these same economic and personal well-being stressors.

The early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic included many economic stressors, along with psychological stressors such as isolation and concerns about severe outcomes of infection. A national survey of US adults in March to April 2020 found that parents’ perceived social isolation and recent employment loss were associated with self-reported verbal aggression against their child, even after controlling for sociodemographic factors including income and parental depression [36]. Remote schooling, social distancing, and sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have made children more vulnerable to maltreatment through increased family isolation, mental stress, and loss of employment (temporary or permanent), and restricted access to critical support systems [37]. Physical and emotional parental abuse were elevated in economically stressed households before the COVID-19 pandemic, and results from the current study indicate parental job loss during the pandemic was associated with increased physical abuse, and, to a lesser extent, emotional abuse. Student job loss during the pandemic was associated with increased parental emotional abuse.

Students who had no paying job before the COVID-19 pandemic and students who retained jobs during the pandemic had similar prevalence of adverse mental health outcomes. These prevalence figures were relatively high (approximately 30%–40%) and likely reflective of the pandemic’s overall mental health impact; 2011–2021 YRBS data indicate increased adverse mental health compared to the pre-pandemic levels [38]. Students who lost their jobs and those whose parents lost a job during the COVID-19 pandemic had significantly higher prevalence of adverse mental health outcomes than those who previously had no paid job or retained jobs. Economic support from the government was available during the public health emergency, but the findings of increased prevalence of adverse mental health outcomes and abuse suggest that this support may not have been enough to mitigate the combined economic and mental health effects of student or parental job loss.

More than half of the study participants reported sleeping fewer than 7 h. Short sleep was modestly elevated among students who lost jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic but was not associated with parental job loss. Evidence suggests that the relationship between sleep disturbances and mood disorders (e.g., depression) may be bidirectional in adolescents, similar to the relationship seen among adults [5]. In this study, the student’s job loss may have led to sleep problems, which may have in turn affected mental health; alternatively, job loss may have led to negative mental health outcomes, which in turn affected sleep. A recent meta-analysis found associations between short sleep and mood disturbances, along with other adverse mental health outcomes [39]; the high prevalence of short sleep among these students, regardless of student or parental job status and loss, may contribute to the high prevalence of adverse mental health outcomes observed in the current study.

With nearly 6 million US workers aged 16–19 years [40], and a smaller number of younger teens employed as well, understanding how employment influences the health of adolescent workers is key for future research and intervention efforts. This study highlights the importance of considering the role of youth employment, as well as parental employment, in adolescent mental health and physical and emotional safety within the family. The findings of adverse effects of student and parental job loss highlight the importance of understanding the influence of family economic circumstances, including financial contributions from adolescents’ employment, on mental health and family safety. In addition, the study results emphasize the complexity of the associations between adverse mental health outcomes, physical and emotional abuse, and sociodemographic factors such as race/ethnicity. The combination of remote learning, student and parental job loss, and limited social outlets during the pandemic likely led to increased time in close proximity for many households.

Parental job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased risk for student physical abuse by a parent, and both parental and student job loss were linked to increased risk for student emotional abuse by a parent. Child maltreatment, including physical and emotional abuse, is a serious problem that can lead to cognitive, psychological, and physical health outcomes later in life [41]. Longitudinal research has found associations between physical abuse by parents and delinquency, drug abuse, depression, and anxiety, while emotional abuse has been associated with psychosis, posttraumatic stress disorder, and injection drug use [41–43]. Additional understanding of the causes and potential areas for intervention related to child maltreatment could help reduce both the current burden and future negative outcomes.

The inclusion of questions related to work, as well as questions about the household’s economic situation, in surveys involving youth could help close large data gaps for this high-risk population. More robust data, particularly from longitudinal studies, could facilitate a deeper understanding of the complexities behind adolescent employment status, mental health, family safety, economic security, and stressors. Increasing awareness among school counselors and community resources of the observed linkages between job loss and poor adolescent mental health, and physical and emotional abuse by parents could encourage early identification of and provision of resources to families facing job loss.