Adults’ articulations about children and their coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic - Antonovsky-inspired thematic analysis of Swedish junior and daily newspapers

The COVID-19 pandemic affected populations worldwide, generating prolific media coverage. From an Antonovsky perspective, this study explored how adults articulated children and their coping strategies during the pandemic in Swedish newspapers. Data was collected through a systematic search in the Retriever Database, March 2020 to June 2021. Following manual screening, 956 articles were included for an Antonovsky-inspired thematic analysis. The findings showed that children were depicted as resourceful, dangerous, and exposed, with a predominance towards dangerous and exposed. Children’s sense of coherence was often linked to behaviour that aligned with the medico-political guidelines for appropriate COVID-19 conduct.