Children’s experience of the first lockdown in France

Authors: Xavier Thierry, Bertrand Geay, Ariane Pailhé and the SAPRIS team

How were French children affected by the first COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020? Using data from the SAPRIS survey, Xavier Thierry and his colleagues examine the daily lives of children aged 8–9 unable to go out or attend school for several months. Did they spend their time in front of a screen? Did they help their parents with the housework? Did they experience more anxiety or sleep disturbances?

Cross-analysis of the EPIC survey (Étude des parcours individuels et conjugaux, 2013–2014) and the qualitative follow-up survey on singlehood confirms that episodes of singlehood are now common and often occur more than once over the life course. It also sheds light on the different types of singlehood and the contrasting ways it is experienced by sex, social group, and age. In a society where the norm of being in a relationship remains strong, being single is accepted more easily when it is more frequent in one’s own social circle. This is the case for women, particularly clerical and manual workers, for whom it offers greater independence. Singlehood is perceived more negatively, however, when it deviates more markedly from the norm in an individual’s social environment. Singles in their thirties, an age where couplehood is predominant, stand out as a group whose experience of singlehood is particularly difficult and stigmatized.

Published on: 21/01/2021