“Now We Are All in the Same Boat. At the Same Time, We Are Not.” Meaning-Making and Coping Under COVID-19 Lockdown in Norway

On March 12, 2020, Norway went on lockdown to handle the COVID-19 outbreak. Near overnight, people faced a new and unfamiliar situation, with restrictive measures in place, extensive uncertainty and the closing down of much of society. The present study explores the meaning-making and coping in everyday life of 16 participants interviewed early in the pandemic. Norway, compared to many other settings in the world, is a privileged context. Nonetheless, participants struggled with this breach with their normal lives. The participants spoke of adapting to the new normal, how the concept of time had changed, how they handled socialisation, dealing with restricted freedom, and imagining the future. Actively drawing on communal coping, as well as problem-focused and emotion-focused individual coping strategies, participants’ accounts illustrate the on-going process of making meaning of their new lives under lockdown. In our discussion, we synthesise various coping processes that the participants made use of in their handling of the new situation. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic is a shared stressor, it influences people differently, and our research contributes with valuable insights into this variation. The recognition of different meaning-making and coping strategies is crucial, as it can constructively inform the development of political and social responses to the pandemic that actively encompasses the variation in individual experiences and ramifications.