Anna Cierpka

Transition to Fatherhood of Young Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

For the last several decades, psychologists have been paying attention to the changes in the Polish family model and the transformation of the father’s role within it. These are the processes that were also significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the research was to understand how the Polish young men awaiting the birth of their first child experience fatherhood in this time of crisis. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with men aged 26–35. Their transcripts were subject to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The results showed that the pandemic took away the opportunity to act in areas that were previously available to fathers from the participants. At the same time, the pandemic gave them new areas where they could fulfil themselves as fathers. Despite the limited access to prenatal care services, participants got a chance to be more present in their unborn child’s life. Moreover, they got a chance to be more active at the stage of waiting for their birth.

The COVID-19 Pandemic in the Experience of People in Late Adulthood

The article presents a qualitative study on the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic among people aged 60+, carried out in its initial stage, in Poland. Three individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted in May 2020, in order to explore how the pandemic is perceived in a cognitive, emotional and social context, and how it refers to study participants’ past experiences. Purposive sampling was used, taking into account criteria of the specific situation of people aged 60+: belonging to the group at increased risk of serious consequences of the disease and being subject to special preventive interventions. Based on the thematic analysis of the data corpus, six issues were identified: information about the coronavirus, changes in the current life, emotional and cognitive attitudes, references to the past, coping strategies and predictions. There was a large variation observed in the way of thinking about the reported events, experienced emotions and visions of the future. The pandemic phenomenon was presented on many levels, being evaluated as a difficult but perhaps valuable experience.

This article is an invitation to discuss the role and tasks of a contemporary school psychologist. The main purpose of the presented theory is to outline a school psychologist’s role as a co-creator of the environment and educational process within the school setting. The introduced M-I-P-P model consists of the following psychological activities: Monitoring-Intervention-Prevention-Promotion. The need to constantly widen the possibilities of psychological action as well as to develop the ability to create autonomous plans of implementing those actions, are part of the described model. The understanding and accurate implementation of the presented model are key to the school psychologist’s professional future, just as a clearly outlined and articulate professional identity is the necessary basis and regulator of one’s functioning in the professional environment.