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Our COVID Stories: Adolescents Drawing Meaning from a Public Health Crisis Through a Youth Voice Intervention

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Abstract

Policymakers, educators, and families throughout the world are concerned about the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on school-aged youth. Schools are working to help students readjust to school routines and regain lost ground on academic skill development while also addressing the wounds caused by the pandemic. This study describes one public charter high school’s effort to leverage a university-practice partnership to respond to adolescent students’ COVID-19-related stress. A 12-week intervention was developed based on youth voice principles; intervention activities focused on helping participants narrate and make sense of their COVID-19 experiences. Eight students participated in the full intervention; most participants were female (85.7%), Asian (71.4%), in the 9th grade (62.5%), and self-identified as ethnic and religious minorities (57.1%). Analysis of participant-produced youth voice artifacts illustrates participants’ conscious awareness of, and an ability to reason through, the COVID-19–related forces and events that affected them at all levels of their ecological systems. Qualitative analysis yielded eight themes: emotional experience, social isolation and lost social opportunities, self-improvement, family relationships, experience of school, influence of the state, and relationship to technology. Implications are shared for those seeking to implement youth voice–derived interventions in schools.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Anchor University Advisory Council of California State University, Sacramento, for supporting this project via an Anchor University Strategic Investment Grant. Thanks, also, to the school leaders who supported this partnership. Finally, and most critically, we thank the student participants who gave of their valuable time and personal energy and generously shared their rich life experiences.

Funding

This research was funded by an Anchor University Grant from the CSUS Anchor University Advisory Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate and Professional Studies in Education, California State University, Sacramento, USA

    Meagan D. O’Malley, Gurminder Chima, Celeste A. Martinez, Mariana Vargas Arciga & Heather Yates

  2. Natomas Unified School District, Natomas, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Jeremy D. Greene

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  1. Meagan D. O’Malley
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Correspondence to Meagan D. O’Malley.

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The study described herein has been approved by California State University, Sacramento’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). The authors declare no competing interests.

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O’Malley, M.D., Greene, J.D., Chima, G. et al. Our COVID Stories: Adolescents Drawing Meaning from a Public Health Crisis Through a Youth Voice Intervention. Contemp School Psychol 28, 97–107 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-023-00477-1

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