Introduction to Special Issue. Distancing, Disease and Distress: The Young and COVID-19: Exploring Young People’s Experience of Inequalities and Their Resourcefulness During the Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 global pandemic has impacted everyone’s lives—young and old. When the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March 2020 and one country after another went into lockdown, we as editors of YOUNG and youth researchers living in five different countries naturally started to think about and reflect on what impact the pandemic would have on young people’s everyday lives, their well-being and futures across different national settings. There were clear similarities in the initial response of governments throughout the world to the COVID-19 outbreak, and most countries introduced, for example, social distancing, and the closing of schools, organized leisure activities and public places such as shops, restaurants and bars. However, it was uncertain how long these governmental measures would last and, thus, how they would influence young people’s lives immediately and into the future. In response to this uncertainty and in the interest of capturing young people’s experiences, we as editors called for this special issue to focus on young people and COVID-19, exploring their changed everyday lives and how they adapted to the global pandemic. By the end of the call, Article