COVID-19 Explained to Children in Italy: A Comparison between Institutional Guidelines and Narratives

Abstract

Among the indirect consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents, most studies, both nationally and internationally, have found an increase in anxious-depressive symptoms, sometimes associated with suicide attempts. Institutions and public health professionals therefore developed textual documents and multimedia products to provide guidelines to set up, among other things, a narrative of the event capable of responding to the psycho-physical distress of children and adolescents and ultimately reducing symptoms. At the same time, individual educators, writers, and YouTubers offered alternative products (accessed through the web) to respond to the same needs. This paper intends to analyse and compare the narrative suggested and packaged by both types of producers mentioned to detect the linguistic-textual and pragmatic choices and their effect.