Transformation of Everyday Practices During a Pandemic and Subjective Well-being of Adolescents

Abstract

The pandemic, quarantine, and other consequences of the spread of COVID‑19 experienced by the world inevitably affected the lives of adults and children, changing the usual lifestyle, and in some cases inducing negative mental states. This article presents the results of an empirical study of adolescent everyday life and adolescent experiences during the COVID‑19 pandemic. The data collection method was a semi-structured interview with the adolescents aged 13–16 years old, including projective methods. Three projective techniques were used: 'sentence completion,' 'a movie script about the daily life of oneself and one’s environment in the post-pandemic period,' and a projective drawing of the 'man,' in the image of which the life of society before the pandemic, in the present and future is personified. This helped us to shift the research focus towards studying new practices, rules, and plans for the future of adolescents who have felt the impact of the pandemic. The projection was used to understand the hidden senses and meanings, their relationship with the rational level, make it possible to identify new social fears of adolescents associated with COVID‑19, and analyze the impact of the pandemic on subjective well-being. A total of 20 adolescents, 10 male and 10 female, participated in the study. Informants live in Komsomolsk-on-­Amur, a small town in the Russian Far East. The research question was to identify the features of the well-being / ill-being of adolescents in the situation of a change in their daily life due to the COVID‑19 pandemic.