The pandemic, the lockdown and other protective measures caused significant stress for adolescents and young adults. This primarily consisted of young people feeling socially isolated, experiencing boredom and uncertainty, or being worried about older people and those at risk. Like adults, they also reacted by accepting the situation, avoiding certain unpleasant effects, or sugar-coating the situation to make it easier to handle.

Contact with family and friends was therefore particularly important for young people during lockdown. Fortunately, we are now also able to cultivate friendships online. Young people made intensive use of this and thus actively resisted isolation. For most, digital interaction was also a good substitute for meeting in person. During lockdown, many people felt that the support they received from their peers did not decrease. Media or hobbies served as distractions. These and other strategies helped them cope more effectively during the difficult phase of the pandemic. However, not everyone was able to handle the situation equally well. Gender, financial resources and migration background once again play a role here, as they also do in many other areas of the youth report. This section highlights the strategies that young people used and the impact of the aforementioned differences.