Understanding the effects of Covid-19 through a life course lens

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic is shaking fundamental assumptions about the human life course in societies around the world. In this essay, we draw on our collective expertise to illustrate how a life course perspective can make critical contributions to understanding the pandemic’s effects on individuals, families, and populations. We explore the pandemic’s implications for the organization and experience of life transitions and trajectories within and across central domains: health, personal control and planning, social relationships and family, education, work and careers, and migration and mobility. We consider both the life course implications of being infected by the Covid-19 virus or attached to someone who has; and being affected by the pandemic’s social, economic, cultural, and psychological consequences. It is our goal to offer some programmatic observations on which life course research and policies can build as the pandemic’s short- and long-term consequences unfold.

Who is most affected by the Corona crisis? An analysis of changes in stress and well-being in Switzerland

“…Although the well-being of young people was not impacted in the last financial crisis in Switzerland (Simona-Moussa and Ravazzini 2019), Daly et al (2020) show that during the Corona crisis mental health problems augmented most notably among individuals aged 18-34 in the UK. Adolescents and young adults might suffer more from school closure and be to some extent socially marginalized due to the consequences of the pandemic (Settersten et al 2020). In addition, those above the age of 65 and those at risk to have severe health consequences from a Covid-19-infection were strongly advised to self-isolate.…”

“…This study focuses on the question whether confinement measures and economic consequences might have affected the wellbeing of some groups more than others, and might hence have put some groups more than others at risk to experience vulnerability (Settersten et al 2020). Identifying the characteristics of at-risk groups is a first step to better understand the mechanisms that make certain groups particularly vulnerable (Spini et al 2017).…”

Multigenerational social support in the face of the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…In particular, the life course concept of ‘period effects’ helps us to situate multigenerational ties in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic by highlighting the impact of major historical events on individuals and families (Bengtson & Allen, 1993). Furthermore, the life course perspective emphasizes that period effects vary by age (e.g., chronological and biological), developmental stages (e.g., childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood), generational position within the family (e.g., parent, child, and grandchild), and structural positions within the larger society (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) (Bengtson & Allen, 1993; Elder Jr., 1974; Gilligan et al, 2018; Settersten et al, 2020). In this article, we consider how variation both between and within these different contexts might influence multigenerational ties during the COVID‐19 pandemic.…”

Changes in employment and relationship satisfaction in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from the German family Panel

“…An important aspect in discussions about the social consequences of this crisis relates to its potential impact on gender inequalities in families and, consequently, society as a whole (e.g. Alon et al 2020;Settersten et al 2020; see also Czymara et al 2020). Empirical studies assessing changes in couples' division of housework and childcare during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g.…”