A big and good apocalypse": Towards a sociological use of children's storytelling in research on the effects of the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken by the authorities to curb its spread (confinement, closure of establishments, mobility restrictions or mandatory use of masks) affected not only the health and economy of the Spanish population, but also their vision and understanding of the world, with a special impact on children, who were at a crucial stage of social and emotional devel-opment. We present an interpretative phenomenological analysis that addresses children's experiences of the pandemic through the storytelling technique with thirteen narratives constructed by groups of girls and boys aged seven-fourteen years, collected as part of the fieldwork of the R&D&I project INFAPOST1, with a total of 56 participants (33 girls and 23 boys). The results, structured around two axes: child agency and emotional valence, show how stories that are narrated with a higher level of child agency correspond to a positive emotional experience, and vice versa. On the other hand, stories starred by boys include more playful, positive and active contents than stories starred by girls, where concern for others and care for others predominate.