TY - JOUR

T1 - Developing in a Dynamic World

T2 - Harnessing Psychology to Support the COVID-19 Generation

AU - Velez, Gabriel

AU - Taylor, Laura K.

AU - Power, Séamus A.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 American Psychological Association Inc.. All rights reserved.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and other social dynamics created a myriad of challenges and changes for individuals, groups, and societies. The impacts on youth are particularly noteworthy given developmental processes of adolescence and emerging adulthood. As psychologists, we havemuch to offer in studying how2020 influenced their development and in shaping effective supports. To be useful, theworkmust be nuanced, iterative, and attentive to their lived realities. We argue for a dynamic research framework to study these developmental processes. Through such an approach, psychological science can provide insight into diverse young people s experiences of COVID-19 with a focus on addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 4, and 16 on increasing a sense of well-being, making education more equitable, and developing more peaceful societies. This paper lays out three theoretical frameworks - Synthetic, Augmentative, Generative, and Experiential,Meanings, Observations, Viewpoints, and Experiences, and the Developmental PeacebuildingModel - that can be used to capture the dynamism of meaning-making and development within changing contexts. We then provide examples from our research with young people in the United States and Ireland. This paper ends with a call for psychologists across the globe to understand and address COVID-19 s impacts on youth through iterative and integrative research methods with a focus on meaning-making. In coordination with macro-levelmetrics, such work can help understand lived psychosocial impacts on diverse groups of young people, while highlighting opportunities to support SDGs 3, 4, and 16.

AB - In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and other social dynamics created a myriad of challenges and changes for individuals, groups, and societies. The impacts on youth are particularly noteworthy given developmental processes of adolescence and emerging adulthood. As psychologists, we havemuch to offer in studying how2020 influenced their development and in shaping effective supports. To be useful, theworkmust be nuanced, iterative, and attentive to their lived realities. We argue for a dynamic research framework to study these developmental processes. Through such an approach, psychological science can provide insight into diverse young people s experiences of COVID-19 with a focus on addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 4, and 16 on increasing a sense of well-being, making education more equitable, and developing more peaceful societies. This paper lays out three theoretical frameworks - Synthetic, Augmentative, Generative, and Experiential,Meanings, Observations, Viewpoints, and Experiences, and the Developmental PeacebuildingModel - that can be used to capture the dynamism of meaning-making and development within changing contexts. We then provide examples from our research with young people in the United States and Ireland. This paper ends with a call for psychologists across the globe to understand and address COVID-19 s impacts on youth through iterative and integrative research methods with a focus on meaning-making. In coordination with macro-levelmetrics, such work can help understand lived psychosocial impacts on diverse groups of young people, while highlighting opportunities to support SDGs 3, 4, and 16.

KW - adolescent development

KW - COVID-19

KW - Ireland

KW - meaning-making

KW - the United States

U2 - 10.1027/2157-3891/a000038

DO - 10.1027/2157-3891/a000038

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85130142052

VL - 11

SP - 105

EP - 111

JO - International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation

JF - International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation

SN - 2157-3883

IS - 2

ER -