Youth Voice Journal

An International Multi-disciplinary Journal of Evidence-based

Research, Policy, and Practice across all areas of Youth Issues.

ISSN:2056-2969 Online Journal Platform: http://www.youthvoicejournal.com

Early Childhood Education Students'

Perspectives on the Greek Economic
Crisis
Vasiliki Brouskeli & Evagelia Loumakou
To cite this article: Brouskeli & Loumakou (2017): Early Childhood Education Students Perspectives
on the Greek Economic Crisis, Youth Voice Journal, Volume 7

To link to this article: https://youthvoicejournal.com/2017/09/18/prof-vasiliki-brouskeli-2017-

early-childhood-education-students-perspectives-on-the-greek-economic-crisis/

Published Online: 17 September

2017
Submit your article to this
journal.
View Related Articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use, and Publications Ethics Guidelines can be
found at
https://youthvoicejournal.com/archive/
Students' Perspective on the Greek Economic Crisis Brouskeli& Loumakou

Early Childhood Education Students' Perspectives on

the Greek Economic Crisis

Published in the Youth Voice Journal, September 2017

http://youthvoicejournal.com/
IARS 2017
Submission date: 06/03/2012
ISSN(online): 2056 2969

Vasiliki Brouskeli & Evagelia Loumakou

Abstract

In this study, we investigated Early Childhood Education students' perspectives on the Greek

economic crisis. We used purposive sampling of students at a Greek University. We enrolled

four focus groups of six participants each plus moderators, and transcripts were analysed

using thematic content analysis. According to the results, students confront the crisis as a

restriction, concerning mostly hedonistic habits of the past that were called on to cease. They

extensively recognised the importance of the financial support and sacrifices of their parents,

in order not to be deprived of necessary things, and expounded on the possible causes of the

economic crisis. They focused on the citizens approach, and not particularly on the

politicians approach, both for subjects regarding government official selection and for issues

regarding bad financial management including utilitarian behaviour. Their proposals for the

country's exit from the crisis focused on activating the citizens, working and co-operating,

producing innovative ideas, agricultural development, and tourism. They agreed on the

discomfort caused by the political system while emphasising the periodicity that characterises

ISSN (online): 2056 2969

1
Students' Perspective on the Greek Economic Crisis Brouskeli& Loumakou

the prosperity of a country. Finally, they implied that beyond any adverse effects, the crisis

could lead to post-traumatic growth.

Keywords: Economic crisis, students, Greece, consequences, post-traumatic growth

______________________________________________________________

Corresponding Authors:

Professor Vasiliki Brouskeli is a psychologist, Assistant Professor of Health Psychology, in the

Department of Education Sciences in Early Childhood of the School of Education Sciences, in the
Democritus University of Thrace in Greece.

Evagelia Loumakou is a psychologist, graduate from the Department of Psychology of the National
and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece.

ISSN (online): 2056 2969

2
Students' Perspective on the Greek Economic Crisis Brouskeli& Loumakou

Introduction

Greece has been in an ongoing financial crisis since 2010. Greece has been more deeply

affected by the financial crisis than any other EU country, and health and mental health

indicators worsen more rapidly in conditions of higher unemployment (Drydakis, 2015).

According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (2017), the unemployment rate in the country

has risen, and the largest increase was between 2009 and 2013. Specifically, the

unemployment rate for September 2009 was 9.3%, while it rose to 28.7% by November 2013.

Numerous health consequences related to economic poverty have been recorded. In

particular, during the crisis, the following have been recorded: decreases in birth rate,

population, and self-reported morbidity, an increase in extreme depression and suicide,

reductions in total health expenditures and overall pharmaceutical spending, and an increase

in the proportion of the uninsured population (Dianeosis, 2016). Representative examples of

the rise in specific diseases were a 50% increase in heart attacks, a 23.5% increase in stroke,

and an 80.8% increase in depression (Hellenic Statistical Authority, 2014). Regarding the

Greek populaces well-being, it is notable that the percentage of the population at risk of

poverty and social exclusion in 2012 exceeded 34.5% of the population (Kaitelidou, 2014).

Apart from the consequences of the crisis on physical and mental health and well-being, the

effects of this crisis have also been seen in Greeks' way of living and everyday life. Their

residential behaviour has been differentiated by shaping and constraining their housing

decisions (Stergiou et al., 2016). Their consumer behaviour and choices of entertainment

have also changed (Polychronidou et al., 2016).

Youth are one segment of society that is particularly vulnerable to the effects of crisis.

They undergo critical developmental transitions such as graduation and may be forced to

postpone their plans for higher education and instead seek increasingly scarce jobs to

ISSN (online): 2056 2969

3
Students' Perspective on the Greek Economic Crisis Brouskeli& Loumakou

contribute to the household economy. All of these changes can have lasting effects on mental

health and cause problems in terms of anxiety, lowered self-esteem and other emotional and

behavioural difficulties (American Psychological Association, 2017). In particular, in Greece,

with respect to young peoples perception of the economic crisis, most students stated that

they lacked the resources to survive the crisis and were financially dependent on their

families; although most youth were disappointed, they felt committed to their country, and

this commitment averted emigration in one out of every two cases (Tsekeris et al., 2015).

Beyond economic issues, youth displayed worse conduct, higher levels of absenteeism and

lower self-efficacy than pre-crisis youth (Motti-Stefanidi & Asendorpf, 2017). Additionally,

young people declared that they have been negatively affected in terms of democratic values

and trust in the state and the judiciary system (Frangos et al., 2012). Finally, it is noteworthy

that in a study that analysed digital video making and sharing by Greek youth regarding the

crisis, all of the examined videos emphatically and categorically indicated that the crisis has

had solely negative implications in youths lives. Politicians are presented as corrupted

traitors, the crisis is called a slow economic death, and the average Greek is described as a

contemporary economic slave (Triliva et al., 2015).

The economic crisis in Greece is one of the greatest in modern history, and its causes

have focused on the serious structural weaknesses in public administration, economic activity

and societal configuration leading to bureaucracy, corruption, and low cost-effectiveness in

services (Efthmiou et al., 2013). Everyday practices that underlie these causes have also been

identified as leading factors, and these are the fruitless waste of money, the economic and

social degeneracy, and the partisan and corrupt behaviours (ztrk, 2015). Finally, the

established intercessory role of political parties, the unstable political structure and the false

choices of Greek governments over the last decades have been demonstrated to contribute to

the crisis (Frangos et al., 2015; Ozturk & Sozdemir, 2015).

ISSN (online): 2056 2969

4