The genesis of this special issue was in 2020 when both editors joined the organising committee of the mid-term conference of Research Network (RN) 03 of the European Sociological Association (ESA) “Biographical Perspectives on European Societies”. The purpose of this online conference event was to initiate critical discussion and debates about opportunities and challenges for the application of biographical research methods during COVID-19 lockdowns with regards to data collection, analysis, interpretation and ethics. This initial introduction spawned further dialogues between the editors throughout 2021 about the impacts of COVID-19 on youth, and possibilities for further extending these discussions into a special issue that would capture young people’s experiences of hard times, not alone during the recent COVID-19 pandemic but also in relation to homelessness, family relationships, emotions, education and war. This special issue represents the culmination of these critical discussions amongst us as editors, with authors and with colleagues in Ireland, Portugal, the UK, Denmark and Ukraine, about ways of thinking and observing emotionally turbulent times, structural constraints and (self)care dynamics in young people’s “life histories, lived situations and personal experiences” (Wengraf, Citation2011, p. 1).

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• Clinical Medicine - Medical and Health Sciences
• Health Sciences - Medical and Health Sciences
• Psychology - Social Sciences
• Educational Sciences - Social Sciences
• Other Social Sciences - Social Sciences