En kvalitativ undersøgelse af danske gymnasiestuderendes oplevelser af fælleskaber, hverdagsliv & mental sundhed
In this project have I investigated how the young high school age population in Denmark has experienced and coped with a different everyday life during the Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, several major impacts was done from a government and world leaders chair. Traveling got restricted. The nightlife was shut down, the cafes and restaurants was shut down, and for a longer time period everyone had to work from home, this is referred as the “lockdown”. This raises the question what possible consequences the lockdowns have had for young people in high school ages mental wellbeing. What I have done through qualitative research interviews is to find 3 informants through several sources like Facebook and networking through the municipality and private contacts. The young people who I was looking for, and found, all have in common that they are attending high school. What was interesting to discover was that they all have experienced difficulties during the pandemic. Some of the difficulties involved the limiting of socializing with friends and family, and problem of getting new friends when starting in a new school. But there are also benefits like the realization of getting closer to the friends that you do keep in contact with during the lockdown, if it is on an online platform, through video games, or it is outdoors in person. Theoretically have I used expressions regarding social pathologies like Hartmut Rosas theory about acceleration and resonance. How the social acceleration is defined from a constant competition that we must live up to with each other, and how this is broken down during the lockdown. Another is Anders Petersens theory about the performance society and how everyone must achieve certain goals in life to have fulfilled their purpose. On that behalf it’s concluded that the informants way of perceiving their stories about changed relationships to friends, family and the surrounding society, the importance of everyday life, has been different during the two lockdowns. In the first lockdown there was a relief from the social pressure regarding social life but also on the studies, whereas the second challenged the mental pressure of reaching the high bar of the norms because the pressure for achieving was just as high as before the lockdowns. Listening to the challenged youth, and how they experience the lockdowns, can show the changes in society and the consequences, for these individuals.
In this project have I investigated how the young high school age population in Denmark has experienced and coped with a different everyday life during the Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, several major impacts was done from a government and world leaders chair. Traveling got restricted. The nightlife was shut down, the cafes and restaurants was shut down, and for a longer time period everyone had to work from home, this is referred as the “lockdown”. This raises the question what possible consequences the lockdowns have had for young people in high school ages mental wellbeing.
What I have done through qualitative research interviews is to find 3 informants through several sources like Facebook and networking through the municipality and private contacts. The young people who I was looking for, and found, all have in common that they are attending high school. What was interesting to discover was that they all have experienced difficulties during the pandemic. Some of the difficulties involved the limiting of socializing with friends and family, and problem of getting new friends when starting in a new school.
But there are also benefits like the realization of getting closer to the friends that you do keep in contact with during the lockdown, if it is on an online platform, through video games, or it is outdoors in person.
Theoretically have I used expressions regarding social pathologies like Hartmut Rosas theory about acceleration and resonance. How the social acceleration is defined from a constant competition that we must live up to with each other, and how this is broken down during the lockdown.
Another is Anders Petersens theory about the performance society and how everyone must achieve certain goals in life to have fulfilled their purpose.
On that behalf it’s concluded that the informants way of perceiving their stories about changed relationships to friends, family and the surrounding society, the importance of everyday life, has been different during the two lockdowns. In the first lockdown there was a relief from the social pressure regarding social life but also on the studies, whereas the second challenged the mental pressure of reaching the high bar of the norms because the pressure for achieving was just as high as before the lockdowns. Listening to the challenged youth, and how they experience the lockdowns, can show the changes in society and the consequences, for these individuals.
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skal kunne klare at opnå. Disse forventninger kan besværliggøre et sundt ungdomsliv. Jeg har også
en forforståelse om, at nogle unge har følt at tempoet i samfundet efter nedlukningerne er nedsat,
hvilket måske også har medført at nogle kan opleve det som positivt at presset har været
nedjusteret. En lempelse af kravene for præstation kan efter min overbevisning have medført at
unge kan have følt sig mindre udsat for krav og forventninger, fordi de eksempelvis ikke længere
føler et pres for at skulle præstere i sociale relationer, og i hverdagen som de ellers var vant til.
Definition af mental sundhed
I projektet tages udgangspunkt i en definition af mental sundhed udarbejdet af Sundhedsstyrelsen;
med titlen; Betydning af dårlig mental sundhed for helbred og socialt liv (Christensen mf. 2017). I
denne rapport beskrives en svækket mental sundhed ud fra følgende definition:
“Som fysisk sundhed er også mental sundhed en kontinuerlig proces igennem livet. Man kan
således opleve at bevæge sig frem og tilbage på spektret mellem god mental sundhed og psykisk
sygdom og for eksempel både have perioder med god mental sundhed og perioder med mistrivsel,
alt afhængigt af hvilke udfordringer man møder, og hvilke ressourcer man har til rådighed
(Christensen mf. 2017, s.9).
Begrebet mental sundhed vil anvendes i forhold til at have en overordnet referenceramme når jeg
interviewer informanterne. Denne referenceramme anser jeg for at være vigtig, da informanter vil
fortælle forskellige historier, som henviser til deres oplevelser, og deres egen forståelse af en mental
status. Jeg vil derudover i dette projekt trække på WHO, som har en anden definition af mental
sundhed:
”Mental sundhed er defineret som 1) en tilstand af velbefindende, 2) hvor individet udfolder sit
potentiale, 3) kan klare dagligdagens og livets udfordringer, 4) kan bidrage med arbejde, som
skaber værdi, og 5) kan bidrage til de fælleskaber, det indgår i". (Vidensråd for forebyggelse, 2020.
s.41).
Jeg vil anvende begge definitioner, og lade dem supplere hinanden. Dette tænker jeg vil bidrage til
forståelsen af hvordan informanterne oplever forskelle og ligheder i forhold til den mentale sundhed
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