Introduction: Threats to Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In the beginning of 2020 a novel coronavirus, COVID-19, spread from China to firstly Europe and then the rest of the world provoking a global health and economic crisis threatening well-being and quality of life in all countries across the globe. This chapter introduces the edited volume and its 12 contributions examining the impact of COVID-19 on four core aspects of well-being: subjective well-being, employment and workers’ well-being including work-life balance, sociability and solidarity, and children’s and youths’ well-being. Highlighting the global, comparative perspective adopted in the present volume, including both the experiences of countries from the Global North and the Global South, this chapter introduces the core concepts and measures of well-being employed in the contributions of this volume, discusses the relationship between crisis and well-being, and the various economic, social, political, cultural, and demographic factors impacting on well-being, and explains the focus of this volume. The chapter concludes by summarizing the parts and chapters included in the present volume.