Skip to main content
. 2021 Nov 9;16(11):e0259583. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259583

Table 4. Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative results, synthesis and gender analysis.

Quantitative Key Results Qualitative Key Results Synthesis and Gender Analysis
COVID-19-RELATED RISKS AND PERCEPTIONS
• COVID-19 related concern and risk perception is high overall, modest gender difference favors young women (concern: 91.7% young women, 80.8% young men; risk perception: 95.5% young women, 84.2% young men)
• All youth reported having engaged in at least one preventative behavior
• Youth were mixed on their level of concern for COVID-19 transmission
• Significant barriers discussed to preventative health behaviors, including social and financial barriers
• Divergence between quantitative and qualitative, with description of mixed concern for transmission and difficulty practicing preventative behaviors
• Modest gender difference favoring young women on COVID-19 concern and risk perception
ECONOMIC
• Widespread inability to meet basic needs (45.0% young men; 53.4% young women)
• Young women disproportionately unable to meet basic needs (aOR = 1.21; p<0.05), even accounting for buffering effect of household economic status
• 35.6% of young women with a past year partner engaged in transactional partnership; greater dependence (49.1%) for those involved both pre- and during COVID-19
• Severe economic impact to both young men and young women due to job loss and loss of income
• Repercussions include financial uncertainty, loan-taking, and food insecurity
• Informal labor opportunities are limited for young women
• Young men increase reliance on criminal activities, including robbery and digital scams, to generate income
• Universal economic impact to youth consistent across qualitative and quantitative
• Disproportionate economic impact on young women
• Gender specific: young women’s dependence on transactional partnerships increased
HEALTH
• Young women more likely to attempt to access health services, compared to young men (aOR = 1.59; p<0.001)
• 34.6% of young women and 40.4% of young men using contraception had trouble accessing their method
• Gaps in access to menstrual hygiene products for young women (52.0%), with lack of money the most common challenge (45.0%)
• Depressive symptoms for young men (21.8%) and women (24.3%)
• Fear discussed as most prominent barrier to accessing health services, including contraception
• COVID restrictions force closures on services that youth previously used to access contraception, particularly coital-dependent methods
• Financial barriers for contraceptive access and menstrual hygiene
• Stress due to financial hardship, job loss, disruptions to academic plans, and idle time due to COVID-19 restrictions contribute to poor mental health
• Gender difference in health service disruption, with young women more likely to need care
• Fear of infection was the dominant barrier to accessing healthcare
• Contraceptive disruptions common, particularly for coital-dependent methods
• Gender specific: Menstrual hygiene barriers are common and primarily financial
• Gender symmetry: Mental health impact of COVID-19
SOCIAL
• 22.9% of young women and 15.2% of young men reported very little control to leave the house
• Only a quarter (26.1%) of young women report having safe, private access to internet.
• The greatest limitation on internet access was cost of data for both young men and young women
• Nearly half of young men (45.7%) and women (46.6%) are spending less time with their partners
• High perceived social support for both young men and young women
• Increased time at home to youth and their family members
• Young women face greater household privacy constraints, and are more limited in mobility compared to young men
• Differentiated gender barriers: permissions/supervision for women, fear of police harassment and COVID-19 among men
• Young men report constraints to mobility primarily around fear of contracting COVID-19 and fear of police harassment
• Technology and mobile phones enable connectivity, yet privacy barriers can undermine access
• Young women face greater privacy and mobility challenges
• Full decisional control to leave house favors young men bivariately, and youth no longer living with their families
• Gendered gaps in technology, with young women less likely to have safe private internet access bivariately, and students disproportionately impacted
• Gender symmetry: mixed impact on time with partners
• Gender symmetry: high social support
SAFETY
• Safety concerns centered outside of the household; relative safety within the home for over 70% of young men and young women
• Police interactions since COVID-19 disproportionately affected young men (aOR = 0.72; p<0.001), with over half of their interactions involving extortion
• Nearly 1/5 of young women experienced past-year IPV, with (70.1%) occurring since COVID or both timepoints
• Police violence and harassment related to COVID-19 curfew and restrictions
• COVID-19 restrictions create risk of gender-based violence for young women; in some cases, COVID-19 provides a cover for relationship breakup following safety concerns
• Young people face risk of sexual violence from male family members before and since COVID-19
• Gender differentiated safety risks:
• young men face police violence/harassment
• young women face sustained risk for partner violence, both pre and during COVID-19; non-partner sexual violence was less prevalent