Facilitators for coping with the COVID-19 pandemic: Online qualitative interviews comparing youth with and without disabilities.
Sally Lindsay, Hiba Ahmed, Demitra Apostolopoulos
PMID 34083178WHAT IT FOUND
Youth with and without disabilities described social support, money, keeping busy, and work-life balance as things that helped them cope during the pandemic.
Youth with disabilities more often relied on family and government supports, while not commuting made remote work and school especially helpful.
Key findings
01Participants described four main enablers of coping: social support, financial support, keeping busy, and work-life balance.
02Youth with disabilities more often mentioned family and government supports, while youth without disabilities mentioned friends, colleagues, work, family, and government.
03Not commuting helped work-life balance, especially for youth with disabilities who found accessible travel difficult; youth without disabilities more often described exercise and time outdoors.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study describes experiences; it does not test whether any coping strategy improves mental health. The sample was purposive and small, with 34 participants from mainly the Greater Toronto Area, so themes may not apply to other regions or groups. The sample included more female participants, and the disability group included more males than the no-disability group, so gender may affect the themes. Participants had different disability types, and the paper could not tell whether coping differences were related to a specific condition. The interviews were part of a larger project about employment and volunteering, so mental health was only one topic. Interviews happened over several months during the pandemic and by video or phone, which may have changed rapport and the strategies discussed.
Declared interests
The study was funded in part by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council partnership grant and by the Kimel Family Fund through Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as evidence that social support, money, keeping busy, or work-life balance improve mental health. The study asked youth what helped them cope during the pandemic. It did not compare outcomes or test an intervention.