Adolescent Connectedness During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Category/Date

Clinical Research Podium Presentations: Current Topics in Pediatric Research. Presented at NAPNAP's 45^th National Conference on Pediatric Health Care, March 14, 2024.

Background

Connectedness to adults, schools, and peers is a powerful protective factor for adolescent development. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the environmental and social frameworks that adolescents historically used to connect with others in a pre-pandemic world. During this same time period, we have seen devastating effects on adolescent mental health. The emerging post-pandemic evidence base is limited to survey data and quantitative analysis. Very little data highlights the adolescent experience during the pandemic, in their own words.

Aims

This study aims to understand adolescents’ perceptions of their lived experiences of connectedness to others during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Using a prospective qualitative descriptive study design, semi-structured 1:1 virtual interviews were conducted with adolescent participants. Inclusion criteria included: 1) age 12 through 15 years of age, 2) up-to-date on well child care at the study site, 3) parent/legal guardian permission to participate in the study, 4) access to WiFi or cellular service and hardware capable of videoconference, and 5) consent to audio-recording of the virtual interview. Potential participants were identified through EMR dataset query and were randomly recruited via email and telephone outreach. Interview data was analyzed using conventional content analysis with inductive and deductive coding to generate themes.

Results

Twelve adolescents participated in the study. Adolescents described connecting via both in-person and virtual means during the pandemic with household members, non-household relatives, and friends. Six themes describe adolescents’ perceptions of their connectedness to others during the pandemic: 1) “Stuck”, 2) “We couldn't do nothing because of COVID”, 3) “Game night”, 4) “Sometimes we Zoomed for almost like hours a day”, 5) “I begged my mom to not make me virtual”, and 6) “Closer”.

Conclusions

Findings from this study highlight adolescents’ voices as they share their perspectives on the impact of the pandemic on their connectedness to others. This data addresses a gap in the existing evidence of the adolescent experience of the pandemic, which has been largely quantitative thus far. By listening to adolescents’ voices, health care providers become closer to understanding the impact of the pandemic on adolescents and can utilize empathy to support adolescents’ resiliency moving forward.