Social representations and questions about the future among French adolescents faced with uncertainty in a pandemic context

With the objective of examining how adolescents perceived their future in a pandemic context, two theoretical fields were investigated: perceived uncertainty and social representations. The questionnaire-based study describes social representations and questions of French adolescents (n = 320) concerning their future, taking three variables (feeling of uncertainty, level of education already attained, and anticipated duration of post-secondary studies) into account. The results showed that the most common representations concerned work, family, and money and involved anticipatory emotions that differed according to the variables considered. The questions focused on schooling, career opportunities, and freedom. The discussion recommended taking perceived uncertainty into consideration in both research and practices.