Liminal leisure in a post-pandemic context - a participatory exploration of youth mental health and leisure inequalities

The psychosocial effects of the pandemic have disproportionately affected young people’s wellbeing. The loss of structured activities in relation to education, work, and leisure have worsened mental health outcomes.

Australia’s lockdowns have affected young people’s leisure where restrictions have interrupted structured leisure activities but also the organization of youth’s unstructured leisure.

The consequences of how lost leisure and (unwanted) free time affects youth is dependent on access to social and financial resources.

How these intersecting social factors shape both opportunities and constraints when it comes to youth leisure in a post-pandemic context, is largely unknown.

This qualitative and participatory study aims to explore, from an intersectional perspective, young people’s perceptions and experiences of leisure in relation to their mental health, within an Australian post-pandemic context.

Individual photo-elicited interviews with youth (age 15-25) together with Group Concept Mappings (youth, stakeholders) will explore how the pandemic has changed young people’s leisure in relation to their mental health and generate community-based knowledge on how this can be understood from an intersectional perspective.

This study fills an important knowledge gap concerning youth leisure and mental health and will contribute with action plans in relation to equal opportunities for leisure and the attainment of good mental health as the world returns to a ‘new normal’.