The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly shaped individual lives and societal structures, particularly affecting families and young people across various dimensions. Parents often faced either job losses, reduced working hours and financial insecurities or virus exposure and additional workloads, depending on their economic sector. Many parents struggled to balance paid work, caregiving and school tutoring responsibilities, leading to increasing time strain and stress. Many youth suffered from social isolation, lacking peer contact and learning difficulties due to school closures, online teaching and lacking support and guidance in vocational education and training. Furthermore, youth unemployment rose, making the school-to-work transition more difficult. However, the repercussions of the pandemic hit youth and families unevenly. Against this background, the session aims at investigating the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and parental stress, economic deprivation, school-to-work transitions, and young people’s well-being. It includes four papers, which illuminate this relationship from different angles. The fist paper explores the impact of parental stress on child well-being during the pandemic. The second and third paper investigate school-to-work transition patterns of VET diploma holders, with a special focus on differences between occupational fields. The fourth paper analyses the relationship between economic deprivation and NEET experiences on young people’s well-being. By leveraging diverse methodologies and data sources, the four studies contribute to a holistic understanding of how COVID-19 has altered developmental and social trajectories. They illuminate the intricate ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted young people and their families. Common themes include the amplification of existing inequalities, the importance of socio-economic context, and the interplay between individual resilience and systemic vulnerabilities. This session aims to foster dialogue on effective interventions and future research directions to better support vulnerable populations in the aftermath of global crises.