Impact of Covid 19 Experiences on Emotional Regulation among Adolescents in 6 Countries

The onset of Covid 19 brought about disruption in almost every sector globally leading to travel restrictions, school, workplace, and worship place closure. Meaning making and religion have emerged as one means for developing coping skills to manage stress (Lorenz et al, 2019). When ability to use those tools is disrupted, adolescents are likely to revert to maladaptive attempts to cope which could translate to delinquency (Barendregt, et al, 2018). Thus, we care about the specific disruptions to meaning-making resources for young adults, in particular and the resultant emotional regulation strategies. In the education sector, school shut down resulted in the loss of a full academic year affecting about 168 million children globally (UNICEF, 2021). Reopening of schools and recovery of the lost academic year came with disrupted wellbeing, increased inequity and increased drop out (UNESCO, 2022). In Kenya, reopening of schools was accompanied by introduction of a crash academic programme, suspension of extracurricular activities and reduced school holidays (Oduor, 2020). During recovery period, Kenya has witnessed heightened delinquency among school adolescents in form of arson (Wasonga, 2021) indicating shift in emotional regulation strategies and character strengths of adolescents. This study hypothesizes that Covid 19 disruptions inversely affected religiosity and character strengths consequently reducing their buffering effect against stress. This study will examine the mediating role of religiosity and character strengths on emotional regulation among adolescents during the Covid 19 Pandemic period in 6 countries (Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Namibia, Philippines and Australia).