Adolescent learners’ experiences, mental health, and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted global education systems, with limited research focusing on its psychological and emotional impact among adolescent learners in low- and middle-income countries. Through in-person semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study explored the experiences, mental health impacts, and coping strategies of twenty were purposively selected adolescent learners (4 males and 19 females). Thematic analysis revealed three key themes: Weight of restrictions: Navigating the general impact, Academic and emotional strain: The dual burden of the pandemic and adapting to adversity. The findings illuminate the pandemic's multifaceted effects on adolescent learners’ social, economic, educational, and emotional wellbeing. While many adolescent learners experienced significant strain, others demonstrated resilience and employed adaptive emotion-focused coping strategies. These results emphasise the role of individual and contextual factors in shaping learners’ responses to crises. The study advocates multilevel mental health interventions that integrate economic, educational, and psychosocial dimensions. This study recommends that future research should further explore these dynamics across diverse populations and longitudinally to inform post-pandemic mental health and education policies.