“Voice to the youth”: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of how Italian young adults experienced the pandemic

Giorgio Maria Regnoli, Barbara De Rosa, Paola Palombo

Abstract


The present study aims to explore how the Covid-19 pandemic was experienced by young adults, a demographic that has often been defined at high psychopathological risk. In the context of an action research, the study set out to provide the participants with a protected space in which they could be heard, and potentially re-process their experience through the construction of their testimonial narration. A semi-structured interview was developed to retrace the phases of the pandemic, i.e., March 2020 (lockdown), summer 2020, fall/winter 2020 (pandemic wave II), and the beginning of 2021 (vaccine plan), as they were experienced by 23 participants (18-30 years old). The interviews were transcribed and analyzed according to the structural principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four superordinate themes emerged: “The impossible in a very short time”, “Things were better when times were harder”, “I control... therefore I am and will be” and “Ambivalence”. The traumatic impact of the pandemic was perceived in all the phases explored, especially during the second wave. The analysis of the testimonial narrations highlighted the main difficulties encountered during that time, the resources used to deal with them, a symmetrization of the respondents’ relationship with their parents, their relationship with the Covid-19 infodemic, and a progressive decrease in institutional trust. While the size of the sample is consistent with the methodology used, it constitutes the main limitation of the project. This research should be seen as the initial phase of a larger study, which aims to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young adults using quantitative methods.

Keywords


Covid-19; Young Adults; Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis; Narrations; Collective Trauma.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Aleni Sestito, L., & Sica, S. (2016). Dopo l’infanzia e l’adolescenza. Lo sviluppo psicologico negli anni della transizione verso l’età adulta [After childhood and adolescence. The psychological development in the transition years towards adulthood]. Parma: Spaggiari Edizioni.

Atkinson, R. (2002). L'intervista narrativa: Raccontare la storia di sé nella ricerca formativa, organizzativa e sociale [The narrative interview: Storytelling of the self in educational research] Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.

Bagnasco, A., Ghirotto, L., & Sasso, L. (2015). La ricerca qualitativa: Una risorsa per i professionisti della salute [Qualitative research: A tool for health professionars]. Milano: Edra.

Bai, Y., Lin, C. C., Lin, C. Y., Chen, J. Y., Chue, C. M., & Chou, P. (2004). Survey of stress reactions among health care workers involved with the SARS outbreak. Psychiatric Services, 55(9), 1055 –1057. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.55.9.1055

Balsamo, M., & Carlucci, L. (2020). Italians on the age of COVID-19: The self-reported depressive symptoms through web-based survey. Frontiers in Psychology, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.569276

Bellavita, A. (2020). Martin e Konrad: Figli senza padri. Una lettura psicoanalitica di ‘La caduta degli dei’ e ‘Gruppo di famiglia in un interno’ [Martin and Konrad: Sons without fathers. A psychoanalytical anaylisis of ‘The damned’ and ‘Conversation Piece’] . Trieste: EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste.

Bettmann, J. E., Anstadt, G., Casselman, B., & Ganesh, K. (2021). Young adult depression and anxiety linked to social media use: assessment and treatment. Clinical Social Work Journal, 49(3), 368–379. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10615-020-00752-1

Biondi, M., & Iannitelli, A. (2020). COVID-19 and stress in the pandemic: ‘Sanity is not statistical’. Rivista di psichiatria, 55(3), 1–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1708/3382.33568

Blos, P. (1993). L’adolescenza come fase di transizione. Aspetti e problemi del suo sviluppo [Adolescence as a transitional phase. Aspects and problems of its development]. Roma: Armando Editore.

Bonanomi, A., & Rosina, A. (2020). Employment status and well-being: A longitudinal study on young Italian people. Social Indicators Research, 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-020-02376-x

Bradfield, B. (2007). Examining the lived world: The place of phenomenology in psychiatry and clinical psychology. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 7(1), 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20797222.2007.11433937

Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. Lancet 395, 912–920. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8

Bruner, J. S. (1991). La costruzione narrativa della realtà. In M. Ammaniti & D. M. Stern (Eds.), Rappresentazioni e narrazioni (pp. 17–42). Bari: Laterza.

Cao, W., Fang, Z., Hou, G., Han, M., Xu, X., Dong, J., & Zheng, J. (2020). The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China. Psychiatry Research, 287, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112934

Cellini, N., Canale, N., Mioni, G., & Costa, S. (2020). Changes in sleep pattern, sense of time and digital media use during COVID‐19 lockdown in Italy. Journal of Sleep Research, 29(4), e13074, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13074

Charles, N. E., Strong, S. J., Burns, L. C., Bullerjahn, M. R., & Serafine, K. M. (2021). Increased mood disorder symptoms, perceived stress, and alcohol use among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychiatry Research, 296, 113706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2021.113706

Chicchi, F. (2021), Sintomatologia della società della prestazione. Lavoro e soggettività nel capitalismo contemporaneo. In B. De Rosa (Ed.), Forme del malessere nell’orizzonte contemporaneo (pp. 71–81). Roma: Alpes.

Davidson, L. (2004). Phenomenology and contemporary clinical practice: Introduction to special issue. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 35(2), 149–162.

De Rosa, B. (2012). Società postmoderna, legami familiari e bisogni individuali: La funzione adulta in crisi [The postmodern society, family bonds and individual needs: the adult function in crisis]. In B. De Rosa, M. Osorio Guzmàn, S. Parrello & M. Sommantico (Eds.), Famiglie e coppie nell’orizzonte post-moderno. Note teoriche, cliniche e di ricerca [Families and couples in the post-modern horizon. Theoretical, clinical and research notes] (pp. 45–60). Roma: Aracne.

De Rosa, B. (2014). La crisi della funzione adulta: Prospettive contemporanee nella relazione asimmetrica [The crisis of the adult function: Contemporary perspectives in the asymmetric relation]. In C. Moreno, I. Iorio, S. Parrello. (Eds.), La mappa e il territorio (pp.182–189). Palermo: Sellerio Editore.

De Rosa, B. (Ed). (2021). Forme del malessere nell’orizzonte contemporaneo [Forms of malaise in the contemporary horizon]. Roma: Alpes.

De Rosa, B., & Regnoli, G. M. (2022). La pandemia da Covid-19. Un potenziale trauma collettivo [Covid-19 Pandemic. A potential collective trauma]. Topic, 1(2), 56–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.53240/topic002.05

Dong, M., & Zheng, J. (2020). Headline stress disorder caused by Netnews during the outbreak of COVID‐19. Health expectations: An international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 23 (2), 259–260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.13055

Frisone, F., Alibrandi, A., & Settineri, S. (2020). Problem gambling during Covid-19. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 8, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/mjcp-2457

Frisone, F. (2021). Clinical psychology: What type of science? Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 9(3), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.13129/2282-1619/mjcp-3233

Fuchs, T., Messas, G. P., & Stanghellini, G. (2019). More than just description: Phenomenology and psychotherapy. Psychopathology, 52(2), 63–66.https://doi.org/10.1159/000502266.

Groppo M., Ornaghi V., Grazzani I. & Carrubba L. (1999). La psicologia culturale di Bruner: Aspetti teorici ed empirici [Bruner's cultural psychology. Theoretical and empirical aspects]. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.

Hendry, L. B., & Kloep, M. (2007). Conceptualizing emerging adulthood: Inspecting the emperor’s new clothes?. Child Development Perspectives, 1(2), 74–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2007.00017.x

Hendry, L. B., & Kloep, M. (2010). How universal is emerging adulthood? An empirical example. Journal of Youth Studies, 13(2), 169–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260903295067

Hirschberger, G. (2018). Collective trauma and the social construction of meaning. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01441

Horesh, D., & Brown, A. D. (2020). Traumatic stress in the age of COVID-19: A call to close critical gaps and adapt to new realities. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(4), 331–335. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000592

Kaes, R (2013). Il malessere [The malais]. Roma: Edizioni Borla.

Kaës, R. (2020). Notes sur les espaces de la réalité psychique et le malêtre en temps de pandémie [Notes on the spaces of psychic reality and the malais in the time of the pandemic]. Revue Belge de Psychanalyse, 77, 187–219. https://www.cairn.info/revue--2020-2-page-187.htm

Larson, R. W. (2011). Positive development in a disorderly world. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(2), 317–334. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00707.x

Lee, S., Chan, L. Y., Chau, A. M., Kwok, K. P., & Kleinman, A. (2005). The experience of SARS-related stigma at Amoy Gardens. Social science & Medicine, 61(9), 2038–2046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.04.010

Liyanage, S., Saqib, K., Khan, A. F., Thobani, T. R., Tang, W. C., Chiarot, C. B., AlShurman B. A. & Butt, Z. A. (2022). Prevalence of anxiety in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010062

Mazza, M. G., De Lorenzo, R., Conte, C., Poletti, S., Vai, B., Bollettini, I., Melloni E. M. T., Furlan R., Ciceri F., Rovere-Querini P., COVID-19 BioB Outpatient Clinic Study Group, & Benedetti, F. (2020). Anxiety and depression in COVID-19 survivors: Role of inflammatory and clinical predictors. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 89, 594–600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.07.037

Moroianu, L. A., Moroianu, M., Toma, A., Barbu, R. E., Ardeleanu, V., & Nitoi, L. C. (2021). Psychopathology in patients diagnosed with SARS COV 2: A brief report. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 9(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/mjcp-2982

Parrello, S. (2014), Scene dal futuro. Adolescenza, educazione, distopia [Scenes from the future. Adolescence, education, dystopia]. Milano: Franco Angeli.

Parola, A., Rossi, A., Tessitore, F., Troisi, G., & Mannarini, S. (2020). Mental health through the COVID-19 quarantine: A growth curve analysis on Italian young adults. Frontiers in Psychology, 2466, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.567484

Porfeli, E. J., Lee, B., Vondracek, F. W., & Weigold, I. K. (2011). A multi-dimensional measure of vocational identity status. Journal of Adolescence, 34(5), 853–871. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.02.001

Qiu, J., Shen, B., Zhao, M., Wang, Z., Xie, B., & Xu, Y. (2020). A nationwide survey of psychological distress among Chinese people in the COVID-19 epidemic: Implications and policy recommendations. General Psychiatry, 33(2), 1–2. http://doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2020-100213.

Rollè, L., Trombetta, T., Calabrese, C., Vismara, L., & Sechi, C. (2022). Adult Attachment, Loneliness, Covid-19 Risk Perception and Perceived Stress During Covid-19 Pandemic. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.13129/2282-1619/mjcp-3286

Semi, A. (2016). Trauma culturale ed equazione personale [Cultural trauma and personal equation]. Notes per la Psicoanalisi, 8. Roma: Biblink.

Settineri, S. (2021). Loneliness or isolation due to Covid 19 pandemic. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.13129/2282-1619/mjcp-3183

Shanahan, L., Steinhoff, A., Bechtiger, L., Murray, A. L., Nivette, A., Hepp, U., Ribeaud, D. & Eisner, M. (2020). Emotional distress in young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence of risk and resilience from a longitudinal cohort study. Psychological Medicine, 52(5), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1017/s003329172000241x

Shanahan, M. J. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26(1), 667–692.

Sica, L. S., Aleni Sestito, L., Syed, M., & McLean, K. (2018). I became adult when… Pathways of identity resolution and adulthood transition in Italian freshmen’s narratives. Identity, 18(3), 159–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2018.1487298

Smith, J. A. (1995). Semi-structured interviewing and qualitative analysis. In J. A. Smith, R. Harrâe & L. v. Langenhove (Eds.), Rethinking methods in psychology (pp. 9–26). London: Sage

Smith, J.A. (2004). Reflecting on the development of interpretative phenomenological analysis and its contribution to qualitative research in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1, 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088704qp004oa

Smith, J. A. (2011). Evaluating the contribution of interpretative phenomenological analysis. Health psychology review, 5 (1), 9–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2010.510659

Smith J. A., Osborn M. (2008). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In J. A. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods (pp. 53–80). London: Sage.

Tessitore F., Glovi, F.A., Margherita G. (2019). Pre- and post-migratory experiences of refugees in Italy: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/2019.7.2171

Troisi G., Nunziante Cesaro A. (2021). Post-Traumatic Affects and Intimate Partner Violence: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/mjcp-2844

Tucci, V., Moukaddam, N., Meadows, J., Shah, S., Galwankar, S. C., & Kapur, G. B. (2017). The forgotten plague: psychiatric manifestations of Ebola, Zika, and emerging infectious diseases. Journal of Global Infectious Diseases, 9 (4), 151–156. http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/jgid.jgid_66_17

Varma, P., Junge, M., Meaklim, H., & Jackson, M. L. (2021). Younger people are more vulnerable to stress, anxiety and depression during COVID-19 pandemic: A global cross-sectional survey. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 109, 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110236

Viñar, M.N. (2017). L’enigma del trauma estremo [The enigma of extreme trauma]. Notes per la Psicoanalisi, 8. Roma: Biblink.

Watson, M. F., Bacigalupe, G., Daneshpour, M., Han, W. J., & Parra‐Cardona, R. (2020). COVID‐19 interconnectedness: Health inequity, the climate crisis, and collective trauma. Family Process, 59 (3), 832–846. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/famp.12572

Wu, P., Fang, Y., Guan, Z., Fan, B., Kong, J., Yao, Z., Liu, X., Fuller, C. J. Susser, E., Lu, J. & Hoven, C. W. (2009). The psychological impact of the SARS epidemic on hospital employees in China: Exposure, risk perception, and altruistic acceptance of risk. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 54 (5), 302–311. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674370905400504

Zambianchi, M. (2019). Time perspective and eudaimonic well-being in Italian emerging adults. Counseling, 12 (3).




DOI: https://doi.org/10.13129/2282-1619/mjcp-3397

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.