Dealing with uncertainty: a re-analysis of student-athletes and teachers' experiences in the aftermath of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on daily life. Research has shown that high school student-athletes were especially vulnerable to the pandemic and its associated restrictions. Teachers at sports high schools were likewise affected by the pandemic. Studies of student-athletes' and teachers' experiences of the pandemic are found separately but not in combinations. Based on the reconceptualized uncertainty in illness theory (RUIT), this paper explored how student-athletes and teachers at certified sports-oriented high schools in Sweden experienced uncertainty concerning the pandemic and how it impacted their everyday life experiences, personal development, and well-being. A re-analysis based on an abductive qualitative content analysis of student-athletes, and teachers in two published studies was investigated. The analysis resulted in four categories: 'Social life in uncertain times,' 'Uncertainty affects health and well-being,' 'Rapid changes, uncertainty, and adaptation,' and 'Learning for an uncertain future'. Throughout the student-athletes and teachers' stories, the pandemic had a negative impact on their well-being, but they also stressed that they had learned several things for the future, as discussed using the RUIT as a lens. The combined experiences of these interrelated groups provide unique knowledge about their everyday life experience, personal development, and well-being and suggest that future research would benefit from studying different support structures for dealing with future global adversities.