Abstract

SARAVI, Gonzalo A.. Adolescence, sociability and the pandemic: implications for socio-emotional well-being. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2023, vol.46, n.1, pp.93-116.  Epub May 02, 2024. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v46n1/100877.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures applied in most countries have disrupted the everyday life of millions of people around the world. These conditions have affected two main aspects: sociability and mental health. This article analyzes the relation-ship between these two variables during a critical period of life: adolescence. In this stage of the life course social relations and peer interactions outside the inner family circle are essential for the person's psychosocial development. Our findings suggest that restric-tions on adolescent sociability due to lockdown, as temporary school closure, intensified family life, and limited urban mobility, have severe impacts on adolescent socioemotional wellbeing. This emotional distress stems from a sense of a lost "adolescence experience" since sociability is a constitutive part of adolescence. The conclusion highlights the core importance of sociability, face-to-face encounters, and corporality in social life and emotional wellbeing, and the insufficient capacity of the modern Information and Com-munication Technologies to replace them. The empirical data for this article come from a qualitative and participatory research with low-income adolescents in Mexico. Fieldwork was carried out in the middle of the lockdown period, from october 2020 to august 2021, and 61 high school students were the main participants in this project.

Keywords : emotion; lockdown; mental health; Mexico; sociability; youth.

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