JS-148.1 – Helena Helve. Hermeneutic-Phenomenological Research on Young People´s Individual Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Thoughts about Future

Abstract

The study analyzes the individual experiences of young people with the COVID-19 pandemic, describing them with own youth spoken language, and interpreting the essential contents of the meanings hermeneutic-phenomenologically. In the spring of 2021, I interviewed a total of ten (5 women and 5 men) young seasonal workers from 19 to 27 years old in Finnish Lappish ski resorts. Dialogical interviews on young people’s coronavirus experiences and their implications for the transitions from education to employment and future orientations were semi-structured, partly discussions of topics related to their future orientation in education, work and transition to adulthood combined with their implications. The main topics of discussions were related to the effects of COVID-19 on the young person´s own life. The young people in the study had experienced more optimism than pessimism in their time in Lapland. Of course, the pandemic has changed their normal life, but it has also given them time to think and plan the future more realistically. The basic themes that cut across the entire material were: 1) The small impact of the pandemic on the young person’s own life. 2) The uncertainty of life and uncertain future and 3) the experienced loneliness, which can provide for youth to confront their true selves. The implications of these results will be discussed in this presentation, which also critically considers the applicability of the hermeneutic-phenomenological methodology in youth research and discusses about ethical points of the study of young people in exceptional contexts.

Slides of the presentation (pdf file)