Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Change, Adversity, and Adaptation: Young People’s Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic Expressed through Artwork and Semi-structured Interviews

Rhiannon Thompson
ORCID logo ,
Lucy Brown
,
Rakhi Biswas Evans
,
Rayhan Mahbub
,
Amelia Rees
,
Molly Wilson
,
Lindsay H Dewa
ORCID logo ,
Helen Ward
ORCID logo ,
Mireille B Toledano
*
Version 1 : Received: 30 March 2024 / Approved: 1 April 2024 / Online: 1 April 2024 (10:05:23 CEST)

How to cite: Thompson, R.; Brown, L.; Biswas Evans, R.; Mahbub, R.; Rees, A.; Wilson, M.; Dewa, L.H.; Ward, H.; Toledano, M.B. Change, Adversity, and Adaptation: Young People’s Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic Expressed through Artwork and Semi-structured Interviews. Preprints 2024, 2024040021. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0021.v1 Thompson, R.; Brown, L.; Biswas Evans, R.; Mahbub, R.; Rees, A.; Wilson, M.; Dewa, L.H.; Ward, H.; Toledano, M.B. Change, Adversity, and Adaptation: Young People’s Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic Expressed through Artwork and Semi-structured Interviews. Preprints 2024, 2024040021. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0021.v1

Abstract

This study explores how young people’s mental health was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic using artwork and semi-structured interviews. This is important to understand so that policy and practice professionals can support those affected, prepare, and respond to future crises, and support young people who are isolated and restricted in other contexts. Co-designed participatory art workshops and interviews were conducted with 16–18-year-olds (N = 21) from the London-based Longitudinal cohort Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones (SCAMP). Artworks and interview transcripts were qualitatively co-analysed with young people. From interviews, six themes were identified: adaptation, restriction, change, challenges, overcoming adversity, and lockdown life. From artwork, four themes were identified; trapped, negative mental wellbeing, positive emotions, and technology. Everyday factors such as home environment, relationships, hobbies, habits, and education or work were key determinants of how challenged and restricted participants felt, and their capacity to overcome this. This implies that young people’s mental health services should collaborate with other sectors to address wider life determinants in a holistic way, and that clearer guidance and support in these areas could mitigate the negative mental health impacts of major environmental changes on young people.

Keywords

COVID-19; lockdown; mental health; adolescence; qualitative; co-production.

Subject

Public Health and Healthcare, Public, Environmental and Occupational Health

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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