Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has created extraordinary challenges and caused unusual social changes globally. The impact of the pandemic has been felt by most population groups, however very few studies have focused on the COVID-19 pandemic on the school going adolescent. Given that the purpose of this study was to explore and describe the COVID-19 experiences of school going adolescents. The objectives included determining the COVID-19 experiences of school going adolescents, describing the challenges they experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and determining the coping mechanisms employed by school going adolescents during the pandemic. The ecological systems lens has been used as the underpinning theory to this study, with an emphasis on the home, school, the neighbourhood systems which had an influence on the lives of the school going adolescents. The study followed a qualitative approach to investigate and present the findings. The sample of the study consisted of 10 grade 11 learners between the ages of 16-18 purposively selected from a secondary high school in Alexandra township. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data collected. The key findings of the study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic brought significant changes within the systems of school going adolescents such as mental health issues, grief, academic issues, and high rates of death in neighbourhoods. Additionally, the study findings also found that school going adolescents had positive and negative experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic within those systems, resulting in healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms. The study concludes by making recommendations from a community practitioner’s perspective such as creating a safe space for school going adolescents to voice their concerns, fears, needs and experiences and ensuring that they have support for their physical, emotional, and educational well-being by working together with their parents and other support structures.