The COVID-19 pandemic has led people to experience significant personal and professional challenges. Although many studies were carried out during the pandemic and in the short term, few of them have focused on medium-term impacts. This article raises awareness on the situation of vulnerable young people and discusses the role of contexts and psychological resources in mitigating the detrimental effects of this pandemic. Twenty-three young people aged 18 to 25 registered at a career center in France took part in a semistructured interview. Thematic content analysis reveals an impact on some psychological processes, leading to four types of coping strategies. It shows that biographical disruptions occur in three successive stages. The discussion refers to a career counseling intervention program with a focus on sustainability.
AkkermansJ.SeibertS. E.MolS. T. (2018). Tales of the unexpected integrating career shocks in the contemporary careers literature. Journal of Industrial Psychology. SA TydskrifvirBedryfsielkunde, 44(0), a1503. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.1503 2071-0763
2.
BerthetT.LongoM. E. (2021). Les rapports au travail des jeunes en situation de vulnérabilité. [The relationship to work of young people in vulnerable situations]. N°4. Institut National de la Jeunesse et de l’Education Populaire.
3.
BlusteinD. L. (2006). The psychology of working: A new perspective for career development, counseling, and public policy.Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
4.
BlusteinD. L.DiemerM. A.MarshallK.SirinS. R. (2002). Voices of the forgotten half: The role of social class in the school-to-work transition. Journal of Counseling Psychology,49(3), 311–323. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-0167.49.3.311
5.
BlusteinD. L.DuffyR.FerreiraJ. A.Cohen-ScaliV.CinamonR. G.AllanB. A. (2020). Unemployment in the time of COVID-19: A research agenda. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 119 (June). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103436
6.
BlusteinD.GuarinoP. A. (2020). Work and unemployment in the time of COVID-19: The existential experience of loss and fear. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 60(5), 702–709 https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167820934229
7.
BlusteinD. L.SmithC. M.WuX.GuarinoP. A.JoynerE.MiloL.BilodeauD. C. (2022). “Like a tsunami coming in fast”: A critical qualitative study of precarity and resistance during the pandemic. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 69(5), 565–577. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000615
8.
BojadjievaD.CvetanoskaM.KozheskiK.GasparovicS. (2022). The impact of education on youth employability: The case of selected Southeastern European countries. Youth & Society, 54(2S), 29S–51S. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X211069403
9.
BonnardC.GiretJ.-F.KossiY. (2020). Risk of social exclusion and resources of young NEETs. Economie et Statistique/Economics and Statistics, 514-515-516, 133–154. https://doi.org/10.24187/ecostat.2020.514t.2010
10.
BreakwellG. M. (1986). Coping with threatened identities. Psychology Press.
11.
BreakwellG. M. (2001). Social representational constraints upon identity. In DeauxK.PhilogenaG. (Eds.), Representations of the social (pp. 271–284). Blackwell Publishers.
12.
BronfenbrennerU. (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Sage Publications.
13.
Brundtland Report (1987). Our common Future. United Nations.
14.
CastelR. (1994). La dynamique des processus de marginalisation: de la vulnérabilité à la désaffiliation. [The dynamics of marginalization processes: from vulnerability to disaffiliation]. Cahiers de recherche sociologique, 22(22), 11–27. https://doi.org/10.7202/1002206ar
15.
CôtéJ. (2016). The identity capital model: A handbook of theory, methods, and findings. Sociology Publications, 38. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/sociologypub/38
16.
CrutzenP. J.StoermerE. F. (2000). The “Anthropocène”. Global Change. The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). Newsletter, 41(May), 17–18.
17.
De GaulejacV.Taboada-LeonettiI. (1994). La lutte des places. [The struggle for places] Desclée de Brouwer.
Di FabioA.KennyM. E. (2022). Positive and negative affects and meaning at work: Trait emotional intelligence as a primary prevention resource in organizations for sustainable and positive human capital development. In Di FabioA. (Ed.), Cross-cultural perspectives on well-being and sustainability in organizations (pp.139–152). Springer.
20.
Di FabioA.RosenM. A. (2018). Opening the black box of psychological processes in the science of sustainable development: A new frontier. European Journal of Sustainable Development Research, 2(4), 47 https://doi.org/10.20897/ejosdr/3933
21.
DuffyR. D.KimH. J.PerezG.PrietoC. G.TorgalC.KennyM. E. (2022). Decent education as a precursor to decent work: An overview and construct conceptualization. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 138, October. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2022.103771
22.
FeredayJ.Muir-CochraneE. (2006). Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500107
23.
GranovetterM. S. (1973). The strengths of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78, (6), 1360–1380.
24.
HillC. E.KnoxS. (2021). Essentials of consensual qualitative research. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000215-001
JokisaariM.NurmiJ.-E. (2005). Company matters: Goal-related social capital in the transition to working life. Journal of Vocational Behavior,67(3), 413–428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.09.002
27.
KhlatM.GhosnW.GuillotM.VandentorrenS. & dcCOVMIG Research Team (2022). Impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the mortality profiles of the foreign-born in France during the first pandemic wave. Social Science & Medecine, 313(November).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115160
LuthansF.YoussefC. M.AvolioB. J. (2007). Psychological capital: Developing the human competitive edge.Oxford University Press.
30.
MariotN.MerckléP.PerdoncinA. (2021). Personne ne bouge. Une enquête sur le confinement du printemps. [No one moves. An investigation into the spring lockdown]. UGA Editions.
31.
MasdonatiJ.MassoudiK.BlusteinD.DuffyR. D. (2022). Moving toward decent work: Application of the psychology of working theory to the school-to-work transition. Journal of Career Development, 49(1), 41–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845321991681
32.
MerajF.MakkarJ. K. (2022). Diverse experiences and coping during the COVID-19 lockdown and unlock in India. Trends in Psychology, 30https://doi.org/10.1007/s43076-022-00196-1
33.
PanteliM.PapantoniouA.VaiouliP.LeonidouC.PanayiotouG. (2022). Feeling down in lockdown: Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on emotionally vulnerable individuals. The Counseling Psychologist, 50(3), 335–358. https://doi.org/10.1177/00110000211064905
34.
SavickasM. (2012). Career Counseling. American Psychological Association.
35.
Smith, J.A. (1995). Semi-structured interviewing and qualitative analysis. In J. A. Smith, R. Harré, L. Van Langenhove (Eds.). Rethinking methods in psychology (pp. 8–26). Sage Publications.
36.
StanistreetP.ElfertM.AtchoarenaD. (2020). Education in the age of COVID-19: Understanding the consequences. International Review of Education, 66(5-6), 627–633. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-020-09880-9
UrbanaviciuteI.BühlmannF.RossierJ. (2019). Sustainable careers, vulnerability and well-being :Towards an integrative approach. In MareeK. G. (Ed.), Handbook of innovative career counseling (pp. 53–70). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22799-9_4
