What are the repercussions for young people who have experienced the pandemic in unfavourable conditions?

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to combat it have had many consequences for the population. These revealed the extent to which the unequal contexts in which young people lived before the pandemic affected their ability to cope with the health crisis.

What mechanisms perpetuated the difficulties that already existed for some young people and their families? What could have created new ones? Was the pandemic the main cause of the difficulties, or was it just one 'ingredient among others' that accelerated or slowed down processes that were already underway?

To answer these questions, the new research project " Pandemic and Inequalities: Analysing the Impact on Adolescents " (PIRA) was launched at the end of 2023. The aim is to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people in the canton of Geneva who went through this period in less favourable circumstances: for example, because they lived with a sick or more vulnerable relative, had no equipment or dedicated space for home schooling, or because there were conflicts within the family. Others had negative experiences of the pandemic, such as difficulties at school, social isolation and anxiety.

The study will be able to formulate recommendations for providing better support to teenagers in the event of events similar to the pandemic. It will contribute to the development of resources dedicated to teenagers for whom the consequences of the pandemic are still being felt four years later.

What is special about the PIRA study?

Few studies observe the mechanisms by which unfavourable contexts increase the vulnerability of adolescents to the negative repercussions associated with the pandemic. This is the strength and uniqueness of this in-depth research, which will complement the SEROCoV-KIDS study, due to be launched in 2021 by the Population Epidemiology Unit of the HUG Primary Care Medicine Department.

Using a qualitative method based on in-depth individual and group interviews is particularly useful for identifying the various processes by which a person's difficulties may have been reinforced or, on the contrary, minimised throughout the years of the health crisis and up to 2024.

How did the study work for the participants?

PIRA consisted of two complementary parts. The first was designed to give a voice to the people most affected. The research team spoke individually to around twenty teenagers aged between 14 and 18 for whom this was a complicated time.

The second part consisted of discussions in four focus groups of 5 or 6 professionals working in the field, in direct daily contact with teenagers aged 10 to 18 in school and out-of-school environments. They were asked to share their observations on the short-, medium- and long-term impact of the pandemic on the adolescents they were following.

The first results in April!

A public presentation of the main results of the PIRA study study will take place on Wednesday 24 April 2024 at 6.15pm at Uni Dufour, room U159, as part of the Society and Sustainable Health Forumorganised by the Faculty of Science and Society of the University of Geneva.

Who is conducting the PIRA research?

This qualitative study is being conducted by several sociologists from the University of Geneva:

-Prof. Claudine Burton-Jeangros

-Prof. Eric Widmer

-Liala Consoli, Scientific collaborator

-Tina Latifi, Research Assistant

-Paloma Hoarau, Intern

The study is being conducted by theObservatoire des familles of the Institut de recherches sociologiques