The self in youth narratives: personal lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
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Adolescence and emerging adulthood are recognized as transitional periods in which exploration and development of the self take place. Times of crises, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, bring about additional challenges for this primary psychosocial task. Everyday lives of young people have been radically
altered by the current pandemic, from schools and universities closing, to social distancing measures that affected their social lives in particular.
The aim of our study was to give youth a voice in order to understand the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on their lives, and particularly, their sense of self. In line with our aim, we asked participants to write their own accounts of the pandemic and the consequences it had on their lives in the form of narratives.
We collected written narratives from 70 young people from Serbia aged 14-26 (Mage = 20.1; Sd = 2.9, 85.7% female) via an online form. Thematic analysis was used in order to analyse the qualitative data. In total, 86 ...coded segments from 46 youth narratives refer to the view of one’s self. Thematic analysis revealed several major themes that refer to (1) the pandemic as an opportunity for personal growth; (2) changes in perspective on life brought about by the pandemic; (3) (in)essentiality of others for one’s sense of self; (4) adverse effect of the pandemic on one’s sense of self and (5) irrelevance of the pandemic for one’s sense of self.
The results reveal the varied effects of pandemic on youth’s sense of self, shaking its foundations for some, while leaving others impervious. Some young people choose to highlight the positive impact of the pandemic, helping them mature and take on more personal responsibilities and become “the best versions of themselves”. It also brought insights about the “importance of appreciating the little things in life”, as well as teaching them that there are things that are out of their control and that they cannot constantly live in fear. The importance of
others in developing one’s sense of self is highlighted as well. For some young people, the pandemic emphasised human’s social nature, while it allowed others to focus on their individual strengths and revealed their ability to thrive in solitude. Finally, for some the pandemic was an opportunity to identify the truly
important people in their lives. The negative effects of the pandemic on one’s sense of self mainly involve growing pessimism, as well as a sense of low self-efficacy and confidence. Lastly, some point out that while the pandemic had an impact on society or their way of life, it only affirmed their sense of self.
The pandemic posed youth with the challenge of developing a stable sense of self in an unstable world. These findings helped us gain a better understanding of the ways in which young people can reshape their sense of self in times of crisis.
Keywords:
sense of self / crisis / thematic analysisSource:
Presentation at 18th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence, 2022Publisher:
- European Association for Research on Adolescence
Funding / projects:
- Čovek i društvo u vreme krize Filozofskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Beogradu
Institution/Community
Psihologija / PsychologyTY - CONF AU - Nikitović, Tijana AU - Ninković, Milica G. AU - Krstić, Ksenija PY - 2022 UR - http://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/4989 AB - Adolescence and emerging adulthood are recognized as transitional periods in which exploration and development of the self take place. Times of crises, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, bring about additional challenges for this primary psychosocial task. Everyday lives of young people have been radically altered by the current pandemic, from schools and universities closing, to social distancing measures that affected their social lives in particular. The aim of our study was to give youth a voice in order to understand the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on their lives, and particularly, their sense of self. In line with our aim, we asked participants to write their own accounts of the pandemic and the consequences it had on their lives in the form of narratives. We collected written narratives from 70 young people from Serbia aged 14-26 (Mage = 20.1; Sd = 2.9, 85.7% female) via an online form. Thematic analysis was used in order to analyse the qualitative data. In total, 86 coded segments from 46 youth narratives refer to the view of one’s self. Thematic analysis revealed several major themes that refer to (1) the pandemic as an opportunity for personal growth; (2) changes in perspective on life brought about by the pandemic; (3) (in)essentiality of others for one’s sense of self; (4) adverse effect of the pandemic on one’s sense of self and (5) irrelevance of the pandemic for one’s sense of self. The results reveal the varied effects of pandemic on youth’s sense of self, shaking its foundations for some, while leaving others impervious. Some young people choose to highlight the positive impact of the pandemic, helping them mature and take on more personal responsibilities and become “the best versions of themselves”. It also brought insights about the “importance of appreciating the little things in life”, as well as teaching them that there are things that are out of their control and that they cannot constantly live in fear. The importance of others in developing one’s sense of self is highlighted as well. For some young people, the pandemic emphasised human’s social nature, while it allowed others to focus on their individual strengths and revealed their ability to thrive in solitude. Finally, for some the pandemic was an opportunity to identify the truly important people in their lives. The negative effects of the pandemic on one’s sense of self mainly involve growing pessimism, as well as a sense of low self-efficacy and confidence. Lastly, some point out that while the pandemic had an impact on society or their way of life, it only affirmed their sense of self. The pandemic posed youth with the challenge of developing a stable sense of self in an unstable world. These findings helped us gain a better understanding of the ways in which young people can reshape their sense of self in times of crisis. PB - European Association for Research on Adolescence C3 - Presentation at 18th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence T1 - The self in youth narratives: personal lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic UR - https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_4989 ER -
@conference{ author = "Nikitović, Tijana and Ninković, Milica G. and Krstić, Ksenija", year = "2022", abstract = "Adolescence and emerging adulthood are recognized as transitional periods in which exploration and development of the self take place. Times of crises, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, bring about additional challenges for this primary psychosocial task. Everyday lives of young people have been radically altered by the current pandemic, from schools and universities closing, to social distancing measures that affected their social lives in particular. The aim of our study was to give youth a voice in order to understand the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on their lives, and particularly, their sense of self. In line with our aim, we asked participants to write their own accounts of the pandemic and the consequences it had on their lives in the form of narratives. We collected written narratives from 70 young people from Serbia aged 14-26 (Mage = 20.1; Sd = 2.9, 85.7% female) via an online form. Thematic analysis was used in order to analyse the qualitative data. In total, 86 coded segments from 46 youth narratives refer to the view of one’s self. Thematic analysis revealed several major themes that refer to (1) the pandemic as an opportunity for personal growth; (2) changes in perspective on life brought about by the pandemic; (3) (in)essentiality of others for one’s sense of self; (4) adverse effect of the pandemic on one’s sense of self and (5) irrelevance of the pandemic for one’s sense of self. The results reveal the varied effects of pandemic on youth’s sense of self, shaking its foundations for some, while leaving others impervious. Some young people choose to highlight the positive impact of the pandemic, helping them mature and take on more personal responsibilities and become “the best versions of themselves”. It also brought insights about the “importance of appreciating the little things in life”, as well as teaching them that there are things that are out of their control and that they cannot constantly live in fear. The importance of others in developing one’s sense of self is highlighted as well. For some young people, the pandemic emphasised human’s social nature, while it allowed others to focus on their individual strengths and revealed their ability to thrive in solitude. Finally, for some the pandemic was an opportunity to identify the truly important people in their lives. The negative effects of the pandemic on one’s sense of self mainly involve growing pessimism, as well as a sense of low self-efficacy and confidence. Lastly, some point out that while the pandemic had an impact on society or their way of life, it only affirmed their sense of self. The pandemic posed youth with the challenge of developing a stable sense of self in an unstable world. These findings helped us gain a better understanding of the ways in which young people can reshape their sense of self in times of crisis.", publisher = "European Association for Research on Adolescence", journal = "Presentation at 18th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence", title = "The self in youth narratives: personal lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic", url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_4989" }
Nikitović, T., Ninković, M. G.,& Krstić, K.. (2022). The self in youth narratives: personal lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. in Presentation at 18th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence European Association for Research on Adolescence.. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_4989
Nikitović T, Ninković MG, Krstić K. The self in youth narratives: personal lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. in Presentation at 18th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence. 2022;. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_4989 .
Nikitović, Tijana, Ninković, Milica G., Krstić, Ksenija, "The self in youth narratives: personal lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic" in Presentation at 18th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence (2022), https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_4989 .