The Covid-19 pandemic experience in young adults: preliminary results from the YAPEQ (Young Adults Pandemic Experience Questionnaire)

Young adults have long been considered a high-risk target in the development of psychological distress due to the relational and social transformations that the COVID-19 pandemic caused. "e present study investigates the ways in which young adults (N=259) lived the pandemic in its multiple phases through the administration of a self-report measurement tool (YAPEQ) developed from the results of an exploratory preliminary study. "e YAPEQ is composed of 24 Likert scales validated through internal consistency and exploratory factor analysis. Our results show the prevalence of negative emotions during lockdown (M=3.50; DS=.92) and the second wave (M=3.32; DS=.96), loss of life control (M=3.46; DS=.87), fear of ge!ing infected and of infecting others (M=3.64; DS=.87), infodemic during lockdown (M=3.50; DS=.72) and the second wave (M=3.36; DS=.78) as well as low levels of life satisfaction (M=18.4; DS=6.81) and dispositional optimism (M=17.5; DS=4.91). In addition, our $ndings shed light on a high sense of responsibility as well as a strong preference for coevals (M=3.19; DS=.85) as compared to adults (M=2.16; DS=.88). Correlational analysis predicted two regression models which emphasised the traumatogenicity of the pandemic during lockdown (R2=.39) and the second wave (R2=.56).