Dystopia and Hope: The Interrelation of Pandemic and Ecological Discourses in Drawings by Children in Sweden During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Research on young people's perspectives on COVID-19 remains limited. This qualitative serial picture analysis of Swedish children's drawings, predominately from spring 2020 (N = 169), aimed to explore their views and meaning-making processes. The focus was on the interconnections of two global crises in the drawings–pandemic and environmental crisis–revealing several links, such as negative emotions and dystopian expectations, as well as a lack of hope and agency, yet also resistance and utopian optimism for solutions. Our findings offer insights into young people's responses to contemporary global crises and their implications.