COVID-19 and emerging adults in India: A social representation approach

Abstract

The outbreak and rapid spread of the novel coronavirus disease or COVID-19 had health, social and economic ramifications for people worldwide. Using the framework of Social Representation Theory, the present research attempts to understand how emerging adults (18–29 years) made sense of the COVID-19 outbreak, the role of collectives (organizations) in managing it, and the evolution of this understanding over time. The function of this theoretical perspective in the present study is to help make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic as a threatening event and in the process understand if responsibility or blame is attributed to specific collectives. Data was collected in two phases, from ten participants (four males and six females), aged 18–29 years residing in India. Semi-structured interviews were used to generate data. Findings have been discussed as ‘sociogenesis of COVID-19’, ‘role of collectives: heroes, villains, or on the fence’, ‘collective symbolic coping: making sense of collective threats’, and ‘the next normal: learnings from COVID-19). Finally, this study would have implications for research on social representation and its evolution, especially of emerging infectious diseases and the representation of collectives may also be used to reevaluate health policies and get better prepared for future emergencies.