In a post-pandemic scenario, exacerbating the uncertainty and precariousness nature of transitions to adulthood, it is crucial to understand how young adults envision their futures and the impacts of such context on their subjective well-being. Lockdown experiences, social distancing, mobility restrictions, and the challenges of remote schooling and teleworking were especially detrimental for young adults’ mental health and aspirations. Adopting a life-course perspective and a mixed-method approach, we focus on two main questions: 1) how was young adults’ well-being affected by their differentiated living situations associated with sociodemographic factors, work conditions, adaptation to home-schooling, family-biographical circumstances, and household conditions? 2) what were the main worries of young adults regarding the future during the 2021 lockdown in Portugal? We draw on quantitative and qualitative data from the online survey “The social impacts of COVID-19 in Portugal”, which was applied during a second period of strict lockdown (11-15 February 2021) to a purposive sample of 7500 residents in Portugal. Focusing on a subsample of individuals aged 19-35 years old (N=2595), we followed two analytical steps: a) to measure individuals’ well-being, we used the self-reported scale CORE-OM, which covers different domains of psychological functioning (e.g., depressive symptoms); and we ran a regression model to identify the role of sociodemographic factors (e.g., sex, age, income); new professional and educational status (e.g., satisfaction with remote work), and family-biographical factors (e.g., household composition, family conflict); b) through content analyses of an open-ended question, we explored young adults’ main concerns about the future. Findings stress the relevance of understanding how young adults’ mental health is strongly shaped by social inequalities and their future perspectives on what concerns education, economic conditions, work, unemployment, social life, family dynamics, and autonomy.

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