LOCKDOWN LIFE Young People’s experiences of the pandemic
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CONTENTS
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Where has this comic come from?
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Shifting experiences over time
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Social isolation and emotional wellbeing
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School and education
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Disillusionment
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Reflection, space and changes
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Rupture
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Acknowledgments
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WHERE HAS THIS COMIC COME FROM? This comic has been developed using the findings of a research project which focused on the experiences of young people in North East England during the COVID-19 pandemic. For almost two years, 31 young people took part in regular interviews and kept a diary about their experiences.
We encouraged young people to use whatever medium was available to them including text, photos, audio, and drawings, using a combination of email, text messaging and Instagram.
The restrictions interacted, amplified and overlayed in young people’s lives.
Young people in North East England experienced more periods of lockdown than young people in other parts of England. In addition to the first (March 2020-July 2020) and second (December 2020-March 2021) UK national lockdowns, they were subject to ‘stay home’ orders put into force for 4 weeks from October 2020 as well as localised ‘tier’ restrictions which were in place from October 2021 up until England began to ease restrictions from April 2021.
In this study, young people told us that pandemic lockdowns impacted upon their mental health and emotional wellbeing, and that the biggest impacts they felt centred around school and education.
Nevertheless, the pandemic shone a spotlight on their lives – with that, came time for reflection and change.
The longer-term consequences of pandemic restrictions upon children and young people are anticipated to cluster around mental health, social connections, and disruptions to education and work.
Despite the idea that we must all now ‘live with COVID’, relatively little research has explored children and young people’s prolonged or long-term experiences of the pandemic, and their emotional responses to such unmitigated change to everyday life.
It is vital that we capture and document the thoughts and emotions that children and young people have experienced over the past two years at a time of heightened disruption and change. This is the story of young people in North East England and we hope that we have done their words justice.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Most importantly, thank you to all of the young people who spent nearly two years of their lives talking to us, and who have helped us to since develop materials based upon this project. Thank you to my project co-investigators Shelina Visram and Vic McGowan, and to my Masters student Amy Bradley who supported data collection for this project. Thank you to Laura at Nifty Fox, Alex and Carol at Operating Theatre and Michael and Unfolding Theatre for all of your input, enthusiasm and creative endeavours. Thank you also to Jon and the team at NE Youth and Amanda at the North East Child Poverty Commission. Finally, huge thanks must go to Newcastle University and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria for helping to fund this work.
For more information or resoures relating to this project, please contact Steph Scott (steph.scott@ncl.ac.uk)
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This research was supported by the NU Covid-19 Research Fund. At the time of this research, Steph Scott was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) [Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria (NIHR200173)]. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. DESIGNED BY NIFTY FOX CREATIVE, 2022.