Reflections of Global Crises in Childrens’ Maps of 2019–2023: Lithuania and Hungary

Global crises have a high impact on the worldon the social, cultural and economic development, and on the way people perceive their environment and on our core values.In other words, they inevitably affect each and every one of us, and while the impact is not uniform, it is certainly there.Studies on the impact of global crises on children (Brooks-Gunn, et. al., 2013) have demonstrated that certain events have a negative impact on their psychological state.Children often find it difficult and sometimes frightening to express their thoughts verbally, but these thoughts can be conveyed through drawings.Map drawings are multimodal means of expression that use direct representations, symbols, colours and other connotations to convey different social messages.In 2019, S.E.Rose and R.P. Jolley carried out a study to find out where children get ideas for their drawings.They found that children's immediate surroundings, personal experiences, and what they see in the media are often consideredall of which obviously shape a child's self-awareness, values, and attitudes towards various world issues.Each mental map of a child is unique and distinctive, but fundamental differences and trends can be analysed and compared between different groups and even different countries.The map drawings submitted to the global biennial B. Petchenik children map contest, organised by the International Cartographic Association in its member countries since 1993, provide a unique research material for this purpose.We present the results of a study carried out in 2023-2024 on children maps focusing on the four recent global crises and issues: the Covid-19 pandemic, military invasion of Russia in Ukraine, environmental problems and socio-economic inequality issues.Expert assessment and cross-checking was used to identify possible manifestations of these issues in children's drawings.Positive identification was based on the direct content, symbols, labels and visual connotations of the drawings.The analysis covered the drawings submitted for the 2019-2023 children map competitions in Lithuania and Hungary.The study involved professional researchers and students from both countries and revealed differences between the countriessome of which were expected and some rather surprising.The sample from Lithuania included 1393 map drawings.It was the primary research material for this study, analysed in detail and from different angles.The sample from Hungary was much smaller -315 map drawings, and only covered the submissions of 2023.The Hungarian sample was used to validate the methods of the research, to discuss and compare the results in the live workshop of an international team.In the Lithuanian sample, at least one of the issues considered was reflected in 276 entries, i.e., in 19.8% of all drawings.This does not mean that the remaining entries did not convey any ideas, themes or issuesonly that there were no clearly identifiable links to the themes analysed in this study.Of the 276 entries, 18 were linked to more than one issue: 13 to two and 5 to three issues simultaneously.The drawings most often depicted the environmental problemsthey were reflected in 200 children maps (72% of all 276 maps with the issues considered).Messages on socio-economic inequality were identified in 47 maps (17%), the Covid-19 pandemic in 26 (9.4%) and war in 27 maps (9.8%).12 maps clearly depicted military actions of Russia in Ukraine.