Perceptions of the Well-Being and the Future of Young Latin Americans during the SarsCov2 Pandemic.

This presentation explores the social experience of 18-24 year olds during the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic in the first months of 2021. Using representative statistical data from Argentina, Brazil and Chile (ECLAC), we constructed a qualitative sample by context and applied a semi-structured questionnaire during the pandemic in large and medium-sized cities in these countries (n=465). Then, by means of a multidimensional analysis and an Ascending Hierarchical Classification technique, the space of young people aged 18 to 24 years old was created. We examined how their work and study conditions influenced their perceptions of well-being and their plans for the future. We chose to include in our questionnaire items related to dimensions generally considered subjective: their feelings during the period of confinement, their plans for the next two years and their perceptions of these projects having been affected by the pandemic. The results show that perceptions of well-being and projects for the future were not randomly distributed. The well-being of young people at both social extremes (those who only study and those who only work) was counter-intuitive. Simultaneously, the results allow us to capture the perceptions of those in intermediate positions (studying and working), most of whom are moving up in the social structure: they are children of manual workers and occupy administrative positions. It was these young people who were more optimistic and more confident about the future than the others. As far as future plans are concerned, we note that the expansion of access to secondary school, with all the limits pointed out by the literature, was able to lead even young people from the lowest income quintiles to aspire to obtain a job in line with the diplomas they had obtained.