Authors
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Gabriella Meltzer
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Tony Dinh
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Nnenia Campbell
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Alice Fothergill
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Christine Gibb
Keywords:
COVID-19, teenagers, connectedness, isolation, resilience
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic was characterized by loneliness, especially among teenagers. This study explored the coping mechanisms, activities, challenges, places visited, and sources of support that predicted teenagers feeling connected to others during COVID-19. Data come from surveys administered in the United States and Canada in summer 2022. Multivariate logistic regression showed that producing personal protective equipment, supporting siblings, getting involved in the local community, becoming more politically active, and taking language classes were positively associated with connectedness. In addition, teens in Canada were more likely to feel connected to others than teens in the United States. These findings can inform policies to enhance resilience in teenagers during protracted crises.
Author Biographies
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Gabriella Meltzer
Gabriella Meltzer is a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in environmental health and epidemiology. She received her Ph.D. from New York University School of Global Public Health in public health with a concentration in social and behavioral sciences and was affiliated with its Center for Public Health Disaster Science. Her research interests surround how climate-related exposures and other disasters influence health disparities at critical and sensitive periods of the life course.
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Tony Dinh
Tony Dinh is a Ph.D. student at Ottawa University's School of International Development and Global Studies. He graduated with a Master of Business Administration with a focus on international business from Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. His research interest centers around the environmental and socio-economic implications of sand extraction in the Red River Delta, Vietnam.
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Nnenia Campbell
Nnenia Campbell is the Executive Director of the Bill Anderson Fund (BAF), a research associate at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, and co-founder of the Collaborative for the Social Dimensions of Disasters. Her work with the BAF supports inclusion and leadership among historically underrepresented minorities pursuing doctoral degrees in fields related to hazards and disaster research and practice. Her research centers on the intersections between social vulnerability and resilience, particularly among marginalized communities facing environmental hazards, as well as the roles that community-based organizations play in supporting disaster response and recovery.
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Alice Fothergill
Alice Fothergill is Professor of Sociology at the University of Vermont. She is an editor of Social Vulnerability to Disasters and the author of Heads Above Water: Gender, Class, and Family in the Grand Forks Flood. Professor Fothergill, with Professor Lori Peek, wrote Children of Katrina, based on longitudinal research on children and youth in Hurricane Katrina. She conducted research on volunteerism in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and disaster preparedness for childcare centers in New Zealand.
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Christine Gibb
Christine Gibb is an Associate Professor in the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa. She has worked on disasters, development, environment, youth and gender issues in the Philippines, Ghana and North America. Her research focuses on environmental migration, in particular the experiences and im/mobilities of disaster survivors and the institutions that govern post-disaster spaces.
