COVID-19 AND THE CLOSURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: AN ESSAY ON THE IMPACTS ON THE EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ADOLESCENTS

This theoretical essay analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures on adolescents' emotional development in Brazil. Drawing on the psychoanalytic framework of D. W. Winnicott and Critical Social Psychology, this paper discusses how environmental instability and the loss of the educational environment have affected emotional maturation processes. The study emphasizes the school as a space for emotional and social support, fundamental for psychological well-being and for rebuilding community ties broken during isolation. This highlights the need to rethink the role of educational institutions as territories of protection, integral development, and emotional care, articulated with intersectoral public policies. This text proposes a conceptual and proactive reading of the emotional function of schools, contributing to the contemporary debate on mental health and the rights of children and adolescents in the post-pandemic context.

Keywords:
Emotional development; Adolescence; COVID-19; School; Psychoanalysis and education.