Paper short abstract:

This paper examines child and adolescent experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in an already precarious social, political, and economic setting in the U.S.-Mexico border zone.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines child and adolescent experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.- Mexico border zone. We build upon our ongoing longitudinal research study on adolescent mental health at a Southern California middle school where we have been working with students (ages 10-14), their families, and school personnel for the past three years. In an ethnically diverse context where the majority of adolescents live in low-income settings and where many families labor primarily in what has been termed as “essential” workplaces, we recognized the urgent need for ethnographic attention to the mental health impacts of the pandemic in an already precarious social and economic setting. Thus, in accordance with safety protocols, we conducted follow-up interviews over the phone and via Zoom with a subset of our adolescent participants and their parents. In this paper, we present the most salient problems raised by adolescents and their families in relation to the pandemic, which notably include fear and insecurity. Recognizing that the pandemic and its sequelae continue, this ongoing study emphasizes the urgent need for ethnographic attention to lived experience and cultural meaning in relation to adolescent mental health and wellbeing, as well as an increased attention to socio-structural adversities that exacerbate mental health challenges in precarious social, political, and economic settings.