“It’s hard to keep a distance when you’re with someone you really care about”—A qualitative study of adolescents’ pandemic-related health literacy and how Covid-19 affects their lives

  1. Kirsti Riiser
  2. Kåre Rønn Richardsen
  3. Kristin Haraldstad
  4. Sølvi Helseth
  5. Astrid Torbjørnsen

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore how adolescents accessed, understood, appraised, and applied information on pandemic preventive measures, how their lives were impacted by long-lasting regulations and how they described their quality of life.

Methods

A qualitative design with focus group interviews was used to elaborate on the quantitative survey results obtained and analyzed in a previous survey study from the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. Five focus groups with seventeen adolescents were conducted digitally during the second pandemic phase in November and December 2020. The interview data were analyzed with directed content analysis.

Results

The adolescents reported using traditional media and official websites as sources for Covid-19 information. They engaged in preventive behavior, and washing hands and keeping a distance from strangers had become a habit. However, not being physically close to friends felt strange and unpleasant. The measure most frequently discussed was limiting social contact, which was a constant struggle. No one disputed the authorities’ guidelines and rules, but the social restrictions caused boredom and despair, particularly due to interrupted schooling and missed opportunities to engage in life events, and freely socialize with friends.

Conclusion

The adolescents gave an overall impression of being health literate, which corresponds well with the results from our previous survey study. Their descriptions of how they translated protective measures into their everyday lives demonstrate that they took responsibility and accepted personal costs for the collective good. However, life with social restrictions decreased their quality of life.

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  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0266510
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    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.17.21257667: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: After a consent form was signed digitally along with contact information, each participant was invited to attend one online focus group meeting.
    IRB: Ethics: The study was presented to the Norwegian Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics.
    Sex as a biological variableKR (female) and KRR (male) are both physiotherapists and AT (female) is a registered nurse.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    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:
    However, after several months of limitations, the engagement from the first lockdown seemed to have been replaced by apathy and resignation among some of the adolescents. The rapid change from having an eventful and increasingly independent life to spending a lot more time at home caused boredom, also described by adolescents in other studies [28, 29]. One may argue that things will normalize when the pandemic is over. However, not knowing how long the pandemic and the restrictions will last may have increased the feeling of distress. Also, it is important to recognize the adolescents’ concerns with what is potentially lost when their access to school is restricted, both with regards to their academic and their personal development. The long-term effects of losing in-person schooling have yet to be investigated, but, according to the adolescents in our study, and in other studies [30, 31], not being at school has negatively affected their work habits, motivation, learning gains and social life. In a qualitative study exploring adolescents’ perceptions of what matters most to their quality of life, being with friends stood out as the most important [32]. Unsurprisingly, missed opportunities for social interactions with friends were the most prominent topic in the interviews. This corresponds with findings from qualitative studies carried out in other countries in which adolescents reported that not being with friends was among their biggest challenges [28-30]. Adolescence is a...

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.06.17.21257667v1 on medRxiv