‘You’re just there, alone in your room with your thoughts’: a qualitative study about the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among young people living in the UK
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Abstract
Adolescents and young adults have been greatly affected by quarantine measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, but little is understood about how restrictions have affected their well-being, mental health, and social life. We therefore aimed to learn more about how UK quarantine measures affected the social lives, mental health and well-being of adolescents and young adults.
Design
Qualitative interview study. The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, with particular attention paid to contextual factors (such as age, gender, ethnicity and health status) when analysing each individual transcript.
Setting
Data collection took place remotely across the UK via audio or video call, between June 2020 and January 2021.
Participants
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 participants (aged 13–24 years) to elicit their views.
Results
Authors generated four themes during the qualitative analysis: (a) concerns about disruption to education, (b) missing social contact during lockdown, (c) changes to social relationships and (d) improved well-being during lockdown. Many participants said they struggled with a decline in mental health during the pandemic, lack of support and concern about socialising after the pandemic. However, some participants described experiences and changes brought on by the pandemic as helpful, including an increased awareness of mental health and feeling more at ease when talking about it, as well as stronger relationship ties with family members.
Conclusions
Findings suggest that young people may have felt more comfortable when talking about their mental health compared with prepandemic, in part facilitated by initiatives through schools, universities and employers. However, many were worried about how the pandemic has affected their education and social connections, and support for young people should be tailored accordingly around some of these concerns.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.11.21254776: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: The research was reviewed and approved by the University College London Ethics Committee (Project ID: 14895/005).
Consent: All participants aged 16-24 provided written informed consent.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Experienced, postgraduate, male and female, qualitative health researchers conducted all interviews (AB, AM, JD, RC, SE, TM, LB). Table 2: Resources
Experimental Models: Organisms/Strains Sentences Resources Experienced, postgraduate, male and female, qualitative health researchers conducted all interviews (AB, AM, JD, RC, SE, TM, LB). ABsuggested: RRID:BDSC_203)… SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.11.21254776: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: The research was reviewed and approved by the University College London Ethics Committee (Project ID: 14895/005).
Consent: All participants aged 16-24 provided written informed consent.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Experienced, postgraduate, male and female, qualitative health researchers conducted all interviews (AB, AM, JD, RC, SE, TM, LB). Table 2: Resources
Experimental Models: Organisms/Strains Sentences Resources Experienced, postgraduate, male and female, qualitative health researchers conducted all interviews (AB, AM, JD, RC, SE, TM, LB). ABsuggested: RRID:BDSC_203)Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Returned transcripts were checked for anonymity and imported into NVivo version 12. NVivosuggested: (NVivo, RRID:SCR_014802)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Strengths and Limitations: This is the first known UK study to use interview-based methods to learn more about the experiences of adolescents and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Purposive recruitment methods increased the variability of experiences within the group of participants interviewed. Adolescents and young adults were a range of ages, had different living situations and health statuses. Data were gathered throughout several key time points of the UK pandemic response, including as schools were reopening after the first lockdown, and as the second wave of the virus had begun. We relied on participants self-identifying to take part in the research, which may have resulted in a sample who were particularly motivated or whose experiences were more positive than those less comfortable or with less time to take part in research. Remote interviewing techniques may have excluded some groups with limited online access; however, we also offered to conduct telephone calls and remote data collection methods enabled us to speak to people from across the UK.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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