How Has Covid-19 Affected Norwegian Youth?

The project investigates how the covid-19-pandemic have affected Norwegian youth.

This project explores how the pandemic has influenced young people. We do so by studying existing survey data and data from qualitative expert interviews. The survey data was obtained through collaboration with the European research agency (RAY-Monitoring and RAY-COR) and was part of a broader data collection together with other European countries that aimed to describe processes of social inclusion and exclusion among youths in Europe. The present research project is funded by The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir) and aims to provide new knowledge about the pandemic's social consequences for young people and young adults (13-25 years). Key research questions include:

1. What projects have young people participated in before and during the pandemic? 
2. To which extent do their participation build new competences related to cultural diversity, collaboration and youth citizenship? 
3. How, and in what ways, are young people and youth work activities in Norway affected by the pandemic?
4. What are the strengths and weakness of existing practices and policies in the field and to what extent can they contribute to new forms of social resilience? 
5. How can studies of Norwegian youth provide relevant and useful knowledge related to the development of European policies such as ‘Active Youth’ and the ‘Erasmus + youth program’?
6. To what extent can findings from the project be used to improve Norwegian policies towards young people and contribute to the developments of innovative projects? 

The research questions will be analyzed through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Taken together the study will provide new insights into how the pandemic has affected young people. Thus, it will provide important new knowledge that can contribute to policy developments related to youths nationally and internationally.