Abstract
This paper addresses the well-being of children in Switzerland, Canada and Estonia, as they experienced the lockdown imposed by governments after the state of international public health emergency, declared by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020. Suspension of school or starting with distance learning, cessation of extracurricular activities, closure of playgrounds, parks, shopping centres and loss of daily contacts with friends completely transformed children’s lives. The surveys conducted by the authors in individual ways, were all inspired by their membership to the Children’s Understandings of Well-Being network and involved the participation of 403 children aged 7–17 years old (229 girls and 174 boys). They present the emerging trends from the children’s narratives focusing on their experience of the lockdown in relation to family life, school life, contacts with friends, and in relation to space, time and self. During the lockdown leisure activities and hobbies, followed by life with friends and school life challenged relational well-being the most, while family life opened up new perspectives and generational solidarity. Staying at home and decreased physical activity impacted on the physical health of children, missing direct contacts with friends and teachers put social relations to test, fear of the virus decreased feeling safe and secure, and the lockdown restricted participation in society. The findings underline the relational nature of their well-being. More in-depth studies are needed to highlight the widening of inequalities and the balance between protection and participation of children.
Highlights
The state of the international public health emergency, declared by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020 and the lockdown imposed by governments had a massive impact on everyday social life and changed the lives of all families (Cluver et al 2020)
Being inspired by the Children’s Understandings of WellBeing (CUWB) research protocol (Fattore et al 2019) which they had followed for previous studies, they explored children’s experiences of the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic
We present the emerging trends from the children’s narratives focusing on their experience of the lockdown in relation to family life, school life, contacts with friends and time and space
Summary
The state of the international public health emergency, declared by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020 and the lockdown imposed by governments had a massive impact on everyday social life and changed the lives of all families (Cluver et al 2020). The rationale of the CUWB project, as presented in its research protocol, is to explore and analyse the meanings of well-being from children’s perspectives and determine how different dimensions of well-being are understood within and across national contexts (Fattore et al 2019) This qualitative endeavour contributes to the interdisciplinary development of indicators of child well-being (Ben-Arieh 2008; Ben-Arieh et al 2014) and the related Children’s Worlds study (Rees et al 2016). Being inspired by the CUWB research protocol (Fattore et al 2019) which they had followed for previous studies, they explored children’s experiences of the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic They all sought answers to the general question of how do children experience the time of lockdown in relation to family life, school life, contacts with friends, and leisure activities. It should be noted that the serendipity of the process comes from the fact that the authors are part of the same research newtwork (CUWB) and are sharing similar concerns and perspectives around children’s subjective life experiences
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