Creative adolescent experiences of education and mental health during COVID-19: A qualitative study.

This qualitative study investigated creative adolescent perceptions of their educational and mental health experiences during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Participants were 25 English-speaking adolescents from the Midwest in the United States. They were identified as creative by their teachers according to known creative profiles. Participants attended an all-day creative career workshop in the Spring 2021 semester. The five focus groups guided by semi-structured interviews conducted for this study occurred during the workshop. This study was phenomenological in nature with constructivist and transformative paradigms, and transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis by the first, second, and third authors. Creative adolescents' education during the pandemic was marked by classroom changes based on COVID-19 policies, experiences of disconnection, disengagement, and disappointment, as well as feelings of empathy and appreciation for their educators. Creative adolescents experienced mental health challenges related to adjustment issues, powerlessness and hopelessness, and isolation. Implications of results are discussed.

Adolescent technology-use and creative activities during COVID-19: A qualitative study.

This study investigated how COVID-19 impacted creative adolescent engagement with their creative activities, as well as how they utilized technology to cope with the pandemic. Using qualitative methods, this study was guided by phenomenology using both constructivist and transformative paradigms. Participants were English-speaking adolescents from the Midwest in the United States. They were identified as creative by their teachers according to known creative profiles and were invited to attend an all-day creative career workshop over Zoom, where the focus groups occurred for this study. Five focus groups, consisting of 25 participants, were conducted, guided by semi-structured interviews. The transcripts from the focus groups were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis by the first, second, and third authors. Results indicated that COVID-19 affected creative adolescent engagement with creative activities in positive and negative ways, caused changes in emotions and motivation, and increased virtual creative engagement. Creative adolescents coped with COVID-19 using digital technology to connect with others virtually, to engage in virtual creative expression, inspiration, and growth, and to meet their personal needs. Implication of results is discussed.

Creative adolescent experiences of education and mental health during COVID‐19: A qualitative study

This qualitative study investigated creative adolescent perceptions of their educational and mental health experiences during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. Participants were 25 English‐speaking adolescents from the Midwest in the United States. They were identified as creative by their teachers according to known creative profiles. Participants attended an all‐day creative career workshop in the Spring 2021 semester. The five focus groups guided by semi‐structured interviews conducted for this study occurred during the workshop. This study was phenomenological in nature with constructivist and transformative paradigms, and transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis by the first, second, and third authors. Creative adolescents' education during the pandemic was marked by classroom changes based on COVID‐19 policies, experiences of disconnection, disengagement, and disappointment, as well as feelings of empathy and appreciation for their educators. Creative adolescents experienced mental health challenges related to adjustment issues, powerlessness and hopelessness, and isolation. Implications of results are discussed. Practitioner points Creative adolescents' education was negatively impacted by the pandemic, but they experienced empathy and appreciation for their educators Creative adolescents experienced adjustment issues, powerlessness, hopelessness, and isolation amid COVID‐19 Results suggested potential risk and protective factors in adolescent mental health and educational experiences

They Saw It Coming: Rising Trends in Depression, Anxiety, and Suicidality in Creative Students and Potential Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis.

Previous research has established that creative adolescents are generally low in neuroticism and as well-adjusted as their peers. From 2006 to 2013, data from cohorts of creative adolescents attending a counseling laboratory supported these results. Clinical findings of increased anxiety, depression, and suicidality among creative students in 2014 led the researchers to create 3 studies to explore these clinical findings. Once artifactual causes of these changes were ruled out, a quantitative study was conducted. Study 1, an analysis of mean differences of pre-2014 and post-2014 cohorts showed that post-2014 cohorts scored significantly higher in Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Conscientiousness and lower in Extraversion on Big 5 inventories. Regression analyses suggested that while Neuroticism was associated with gender, Conscientiousness and Grade Point Average for the earlier group, Neuroticism in the post 2014 groups was related to complex interplay of all personality dynamics except Agreeableness. In the qualitative Study 2, focus groups of 6-10 students, for a total of 102 participants were queried about the reasons they perceived for increased anxiety and depression in creative students. Increased achievement pressures and awareness of environmental and social problems were major sources of external stressors; perfectionism and desire to fulfill expectations of others were the primary sources of internal stress. The authors suggest that creative students' openness to experience and advanced knowledge made it possible for these students to see the potential for environmental and social crises and respond to their inability to solve these problems with anxiety and depression. Study 3 was a qualitative study that followed up 19 participants from the post-2014 cohort to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and creativity. While the majority perceived a negative effect of the pandemic on their mental health, most also produced a surprising variety of creative works during that time. In conclusion, rapid changes in the lives of creative adolescents since 2014 suggest that scholars focus on current cohorts and the ways in which adolescent personality is shaped by internal expectation and external pressures and global events. Despite the pandemic, creative young people continued to create.