Long-term school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis have impacted the life transitions of adolescents in a multitude of ways beyond disruption in education, finds a recent study on ‘Adolescent Girls’ Vulnerabilities and Transitions in the Context of COVID-19’. Adolescents reportedly had to grapple with reduced educational aspirations, poorer psychosocial wellbeing, increased restrictions and control over social relations and mobility and pressures to start work. Also read: Bangladesh number 1 recipient of COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX: UNICEF The decisions made by parents and adolescents during COVID will influence their future life trajectories by determining their educational achievements, their reproductive health and also livelihood choices. Findings from the study were shared at a research dissemination event held on Wednesday at the BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka. The mixed-method study, conducted during September to November 2021, aimed to shed light on women and girls’ access to justice in Bangladesh by analysing adolescent girls’ life transitions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the research, 35% of adolescents studied for 3-5 hours before the pandemic - which went down to 14% during COVID-19. While COVID-19 did not significantly affect drop-outs rates, at least 35% of the dropouts mentioned that COVID-19 had led to unwillingness to study further, and another 16% said they could no longer afford it. Although the study found little variation in the rate of early marriage before and after the pandemic, nearly 50% of the parents said that their decision to marry off their daughters was moderately or highly influenced by COVID-19. Therefore, COVID-19 did encourage some households to take the decision to marry off their daughters as they felt social pressure to ensure that their daughters’ and their family’s honour would be protected.