Qualitative Analysis of Adolescent Social Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a widespread impact on social life in the United States, including the closing of public spaces such as schools and enforcing of social distancing regulations to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 in the community. The transition to online schooling and the limited exposure to friends and family outside the home has impacted adolescents’ social lives. Adolescence is a developmental period where there is a shift from reliance on parents to interacting with and confiding in their peers (Harris 1995). The objective of the current study is to understand adolescents’ social lives from their own perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescents from three urban high schools (N=725) completed an online survey in May 2020 during the stay-at-home orders. Using qualitative data would provide important information on the social challenges that adolescents are experiencing, a perspective that has been less explored in the literature. Qualitative data will also provide a space for adolescents to reflect on how they have adapted to these social challenges as well as how their social lives may have changed for the better. In the current study, students were asked the open-ended question, “How is your social life? What has been difficult and what is going well?” The data will be analyzed using content analytic methods (Neuendorf, 2002) to explore the themes that emerge from the adolescents’ responses as assessed by three trained coders. Two coders unitized the data and a third reviewed all the units of both coders to ensure that each response was broken down to thematic units. All three coders are currently using open coding to create the codebook and then axial coding will be assigned to each unitized data point. Interrater reliability will be calculated to check agreement. Discrepancies will be reconciled between coders. Once all the units have been coded, we will utilize descriptive statistics to explore the frequency of codes endorsed within the whole sample and in specific sociodemographic groups, such as gender identity. Since there is limited research on the social lives of adolescents during COVID-19—particularly using qualitative methods—we do not have specific a priori hypotheses about what adolescents will report. Rather, our analyses are hypothesis generating to better understand positive and negative aspects of social life for adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders, which can inform current and future intervention, research, and policy.

Authors

• Kenia Rivera, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• Hollis Lyman, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author

• Megan Hoffman, University of California - San Diego
  Non-Presenting Author

• Samantha Scott, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christopher Rozek, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jenalee Doom, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author