Childhood and adolescence: Experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina

Abstract

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the preventive and compulsory social confinement established as a response by the national government of Argentina had an impact on the daily lives and subjectivities of children and adolescents. The authors carried out a qualitative exploratory-descriptive study that focused on the construction of meanings and emotions in relation to the pandemic, lock-downs, school experiences and care practices. A total of 68 children and adolescents from four different jurisdictions in Argentina participated in the study between March and June 2020. The authors collected oral narratives, photos, drawings and videos produced by the children and adolescents. The participants reinvented ways of bonding, playing and inhabiting spaces, establishing themselves as ethical-political subjects who are capable of caring and transforming the roles assigned to them by society despite worsening situations of inequality, fear of contagion and loss of loved ones.