Growing Up Under COVID-19: Young People's Agency in Family Dynamics

The change in children's subjective relational social cohesion with family and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multinational analysis

As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, social-distancing measures have been implemented worldwide, including school closures. Previous studies indicated that children's relational social cohesion with family (RSC-Fa) and friends (RSC-Fr) may have decreased during the pandemic, but some children described that positive experiences were gained from the confinement measures of social distancing. Mostly, these studies are qualitative or capture a single country and have an exploratory character. Using data collected in 2021 of more than 20,000 children primarily aged 9-13 years as part of the International Children's Worlds COVID-19 Supplement Survey from 18 countries (Germany, Turkey, Bangladesh, Italy, Albania, Romania, Chile, Wales, Taiwan, Belgium, Algeria, Israel, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia, Estonia, Finland, and Spain), this study aimed to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected children's RSC-Fa and RSC-Fr and explore the role of relational factors. RSC-Fa and RSC-Fr are measured through satisfaction in relationships with family members and friends before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. We employed descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, and multinomial logistic regression analysis. Our analyses confirmed the decrease in RSC-Fa and RSC-Fr, with a noticeably bigger decrease in RSC-Fr. Five profiles of change in RSC emerged: (1) gainers in both RSC; (2) gainers in RSC-Fa and decliners in RSC-Fr; (3) no change in either RSC; (4) decliners in RSC-Fa and gainers in RSC-Fr; and (5) decliners in both RSC. The quantity and quality of children's relationships differ by their profiles of change in RSC. For example, it was significantly more likely that "decliners in both RSC" had to be at home all day because of COVID-19 than "gainers in both RSC" or "no changers." Mainly, the quantity of relationship factors, and among different quality factors, only autonomy perceptions, help to explain the children belonging to the "gainers in both RSC" profile compared to the "no changers." Meanwhile, almost all the quantity and quality of relationships factors help to explain children's belonging to the "decliners in both RSC" profile compared to "no changers." In conclusion, our study confirmed the importance of keeping schools open to protect the RSC of children.

Opportunities, challenges, and contextual supports to promote enacting maturing during adolescence

Conceptions of adolescent "storm and stress" may be tied to a developmental mismatch that exists between young people's need for meaningful roles and autonomy - which we refer to as a need for enacting maturity - and the lack of such opportunities in most adolescents' contexts. First, we summarize our previous work on enacting maturity, including a review of the key components, links to wellbeing, and the nuances and limitations of this construct. Next, we extend this work by considering how the ecological contexts (e.g., family, school, community) young people are embedded in and their various intersecting social positions and identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, immigrant origin) influence their experiences with enacting maturity. In this section, we pose several key questions for developmental scientists around: (a) identifying a young person's desire for, and phenomenological processing of, their adult-like roles, (b) understanding how complex and unequal responses to physical maturation shape opportunities for enacting maturity, and (c) attending to disparities in curricular and extracurricular pathways to leadership, responsibility, and autonomy. Finally, we discuss spaces with high potential to support enacting maturity, including both specially designed programs (e.g., youth participatory action research, leadership programs) as well as routine, everyday opportunities (e.g., interactions with teachers, training for companies that employ youth). We offer two levers for supporting enacting maturity across both types of spaces: adult allies and responsive organizations. Looking to exemplary programs, innovative leaders, social media, and case studies, we re-imagine how adults and organizations can promote young people enacting maturing in ways that are safe, worthwhile, and equitable.