The Covid generation: Identifying risks and protective factors for young people's pathways through the Covid-19 pandemic in Switzerland [CovidGen]

The pandemic has severely affected the wellbeing of young people in particular. It is of utmost importance to gain a better understanding of how and in which way this has happened in Switzerland and which mid-term consequences with respect to wellbeing can be observed (up to four years after the start of the pandemic). Moreover, given that the pandemic required a quick policy response, most programmes and initiatives for young people were implemented in an ad-hoc manner. As a result, we lack an overview and knowledge on which approaches worked well and whether they targeted the groups most at risk. However, to draw conclusions for the future such an overview is required to examine whether policies targeted the groups most at risk. Against this background, CovidGen aims to answer two overarching research questions: 1)To what extent did the COVID-19 pandemic affect wellbeing of young people in the medium term, what were the main drivers, the groups most at risk and which protective factors mitigated negative consequences for wellbeing?2)Were policy initiatives to support young people during the pandemic focussing on the groups most at risk, and what can we learn from them for future crises?CovidGen will address these research questions by means of a mixed-methods research design, with two work packages (WPs) each focusing on one of the two research questions. A main overarching aim of CovidGen is to bring together findings from statistical analyses on drivers of wellbeing during the pandemic with an analysis of whether policy responses focused on these drivers and the risk groups in interaction with relevant policy actors in the field, to foster young people's resilience in future pandemics.In WP1 we use a cutting-edge quantitative approach with a particular focus on causal inference. The main objective of WP1 is to shed light on the factors influencing young people's (aged 14-35) wellbeing during the pandemic and beyond (in the short-term during the pandemic, and in the medium term until 2024). Next to examining, with a cohort approach, whether the wellbeing of the cohort experiencing the pandemic was differently affected compared to a pre-pandemic cohort, we also examine two types of factors contributing to this (1) whether the well-being effect of the pandemic was different depending on the socio-economic position of the young people and (2) whether the well-being effect was driven by changes in social connection, in socio-economic position and changes in school and work situation during the pandemic. The main objective of WP2 is to provide an overview of the diversity of policy initiatives oriented at supporting young people's wellbeing over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will bring together policies and programmes that focused on above mentioned protective factors and draw conclusions on whether they reached the groups most at risk and with respect to lessons learned for youth policy in the near future and in the context of a future crisis. This will be done by producing an inventory of policies and programmes targeting young people for four cantons, which will provide a detailed overview of how these policy responses have been developed, implemented and with which success. Complementing the documentary analysis with 25-30 expert interviews, we will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the selected programmes as well as the challenges faced, and lessons learnt during their development and implementation. Our results will be translated into recommendations for policy interventions targeting young people's wellbeing in the next few years and in the context of eventual future crises.CovidGen is strongly embedded in the policy field, as it has established a close collaboration with Pro Juventute and Pro Familia as project partners, and we will constitute a policy advisory board to facilitate the policy research of WP2 and to exchange with for the translation of the findings of both WPs into policy recommendations. Due to the close collaboration with these important stakeholders and policymakers in the field throughout the project, CovidGen will be able to implement and disseminate its findings in the most effective way. Besides the scientific output (four peer-reviewed articles for WP1 and one for WP2), we will deliver the database of the policy inventory (the CovidGen database) as well as a policy report integrating findings from both the quantitative analyses on how wellbeing of young people was affected and for which particular groups, and a synthesis of the policy response oriented at young people's wellbeing during the pandemic in the four selected cantons. This report will be presented and discussed in a public final symposium.