Pandemic Fallout: Sustained Declines in Young People’s Subjective Well-Being and Protective Factors in Switzerland

Empirical evidence suggests that subjective well-being declined markedly in response to COVID-19 lockdown measures, followed by a gradual recovery, but not for all. Against this backdrop, this study employed linear random-effects regression models to analyse changes in subjective well-being across the general population, specifically among young people (aged 15–24) in Switzerland from 2017 to 2023. It also explored the pandemic-related consequences on youth. Using data from the Swiss Household Panel (N = 30,439 participants; n = 118,604 observations), the findings indicate that 2020 and 2021 marked a temporary deterioration within a broader, long-standing decline in subjective well-being. The results suggest that young people experienced more significant adverse effects than older age groups (45 +) during the short term (2020–2021) and the medium term (2022–2023) following the pandemic onset, though some recovery was observed more recently. Additionally, the study identified factors that mitigated the short-term pandemic-related psychological effects on youth, including being male, being Swiss by birth, having completed higher education, not living alone, and belonging to higher-income households. By identifying protective factors and resilience trajectories, policymakers and practitioners could design more targeted and effective interventions to promote youth well-being, thereby strengthening resilience and advancing a more equitable recovery in future crises.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Social Indicators Research

• Publication date

  2025-07-22

• Fields of study

  Sociology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/s11205-025-03662-2PMID 41195405PMCID 12583277
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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