Cuban youth in the face of COVID-19: Stressors and coping strategies

The epidemiological situation caused by Covid-19 has greatly impacted on the subjective dimension. Young people are among the groups most vulnerable to confinement and the situation generated by the pandemic in general. Constraints of the social structure, together with the socio-psychological characteristics of this age group, condition the main stressors that youth currently face (CEPAL, 2020). The objective is characterizing stressors and coping strategies in young people who accessed two groups from the WhatsApp Psychogroups psychological counseling service. Around 500 young Cubans participated. The content analysis of the 94 work sessions between two groups, Psycho-counseling Youth I and II, belonging to the remote psychological counseling service Psychogroups WhatsApp, was used. Four key areas of tension for young people are evident in the situation generated by the pandemic: personal, family, work / study and recreative. To cope with them, young people implement various strategies. There is a greater volume of strategies aimed at the area of tension directly related to the transmission of the disease; as well as a preponderance of active strategies oriented to the behavioral dimension, which show plurality and creativity in the elaboration of effective solutions.