Social Identities and Long COVID

ABSTRACT

Social identity research has often overlooked the experiences of people with chronic health conditions and disabilities. People with long COVID, who comprise over 5% of the adult population of the United States, are one such group. The present study leverages data from a sample of 10,576 adults in the United States to ask: To what degree do people with (and without) long COVID identify as “disabled,” “a long hauler,” and “a COVID survivor”? People with long COVID ( n  = 1059) identify more strongly with each of these identities than people who had recovered from long COVID ( n  = 1576) and those who never developed long COVID ( n  = 8124). In addition, while most individuals do not identify as “disabled” or as a “long hauler,” people who actively had long COVID and those who had recovered from long COVID identified as “COVID survivors.” Moreover, people who had recovered from long COVID identified more strongly as “disabled” than people who never developed long COVID in the first place. Stronger identification with all three identities is related to greater depression. Results suggest that long COVID can have lasting impacts on individuals' self‐concepts and social identities. The article includes suggestions for researchers and discusses ways in which future research in this area can benefit both individuals with long COVID and social psychological theory.