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Robin Samuel Interviewed by Contacto

The pandemic will affect young people's career entries, health and psychological developments

Moritz Höpner

Contacto’s Paula Santos Ferreira has asked Prof. Dr. Robin Samuel for his views on the possible consequences of the current pandemic for Luxembourgish young people. Her recent article, citing the preliminary results of the study Young People and COVID-19 (YAC+), is aimed at a large Portuguese-speaking readership in Luxembourg.

Read the article (in Portuguese)

More than half of adolescent study participants are concerned about COVID-19

Samuel, co-author of the study, indicated that more than half of the adolescents and young adults who participated in the study are concerned about COVID-19 and its potential for change. Young people whose parents were not born in Luxembourg tended to be even more concerned. This could be related to socioeconomic aspects, the researcher adds. However, this finding is not exclusive to young Portuguese or Portuguese-speaking youth in Luxembourg.

According to international studies, young people will face hard the consequences of the pandemic in the coming years. At the level of education and financial insecurity, this is likely to have a compounding effect on already existing socioeconomic inequalities, Santos Ferreira writes.

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Young people will probably have to postpone their entry into the labor market

From her conversation with Robin Samuel, Contacto’s journalist also gathers that this young generation will most likely have to postpone their entry into the labor market and face unemployment in the early stages of their careers. This affects their economic income, health and emotional well-being.

Concluding her interview with Robin Samuel, Paula Santos Ferreira looks forward to the results of the follow-up analyses of the YAC+ study, which will be published this year and also in 2023/2024.

Further information on YAC+

More information about YAC+ can be found here, on the pages of the Digital Documentation and Research Centre. Paula Santos Ferreira has also published stories of young people in Luxembourg and Portugal. They can be read here (in Portuguese).

Who’s involved?

Author: Moritz Höpner
Collaboration of: Robin Samuel

Year

2021