Young Queenslanders’ experiences of COVID-19 : Insights from the Our Lives cohort study

[Extract] These findings provide an overview of changes in young Queenslanders’ attitudes, behaviours, and life pathways during the early spread of COVID-19 and public health restrictions to contain it. Evidently, this period of sudden, mass social and economic disruption posed heightened risks to the social, economic, and psychological well-being of the Our Lives cohort and those young adults they represent. The introduction of emergency welfare measures may have been a short-term buffer to some of these impacts, as were the opportunities found by more fortunate young people to strengthen existing relationships, and cultivate an inward focus on personal goals, interests, and health. Nonetheless, our research suggests both the risks and opportunities posed by COVID-19 are being experienced unevenly within the cohort, with the potential for a widening of social inequalities. Encouragingly, there were signs that political bipartisanship on the issue of COVID-19 has helped to reverse a long-term decline in young people’s trust in government and politicians generally. Further research on the Our Lives cohort will thus be critical for understanding the longer-term implications of COVID-19 for the lives and outlooks of young Queenslanders into 2021 and beyond.