This master’s thesis is part of the “COVID-19: Vulnerability Assessment and Community
Engagement” international research project conducted by the medical-anthropological
consortium Sonar-Global. The fieldwork material was collected in the latter half of 2021,
in Ljubljana (as an urban setting) and Pomurje (as a rural setting). The author focuses on
the population of young adults and their mental distress. Mental distress is presented
through their perceptions and not limited by psychiatric diagnoses. The thesis also touches
on the topic of coping with mental distress, both at the level of self-care and at the level of
seeking help from biomedical professionals. The thesis starts with a presentation of the
methodology, interlocutors, and research environments and a reflection on the experience
of fieldwork during the pandemic. It then shifts to the findings from the fieldwork. Through citations from interviewees, academic literature and media articles, it presents the mental distress of young adults and their ways of coping with it. The experience of distress is divided into two categories: the impact of the fear of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the mental health of young adults, and the impact of COVID-19 containment measures on the mental health of young adults. The final chapter looks at coping with mental health struggles.
Throughout the thesis, parallels and differences in the experience of the pandemic are drawn between young people in Ljubljana and Pomurje.
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