Acceso usuarios
Lucía González Pasarín
, Isabel María Bernedo Muñoz, Antonio Urbano Contreras
El confinamiento por la pandemia de COVID-19 tuvo un gran impacto en el microsistema familiar, principal contexto de desarrollo, socialización y apoyo para sus miembros. Esta investigación descriptiva busca analizar las preocupaciones, las fuentes de conflicto y los recursos de afrontamiento percibidos como necesarios durante tal confinamiento en familias acogedoras/no acogedoras y en familias con/sin niños, a partir de un enfoque mixto. Participaron 462 personas (79 acogedoras y 383 no acogedoras; 311 con niños y 151 sin niños). Se empleó un cuestionario que incluyó tres preguntas abiertas referidas a los tres elementos objeto de estudio, analizadas mediante el análisis de contenido. Los resultados indican que los tipos de familias presentan diferencias respecto a sus preocupaciones, fuentes de conflictos y recursos demandados, pero tienden a coincidir en lo que consideran más relevante. Aunque se preocupan mayoritariamente por cuestiones de salud, también señalan los ámbitos laboral y familiar. Asimismo, el conflicto aparece como variable, destacándose la gestión y organización de la rutina diaria. Por último, las familias indican como recursos más necesitados los psicológicos y emocionales, seguidos de los escolares. Estos resultados ayudarán a desarrollar planes sociales adaptados a las necesidades de las familias y a su estructura familiar. Igualmente, las autoridades deberían dotar a las familias de apoyo psicoeducativo que ayude a mejorar su funcionamiento familiar, reforzar los servicios de salud y dar más apoyo laboral, económico y académico para asegurar el desarrollo de toda la familia y la sociedad en su conjunto.
COVID-19 pandemic lockdown greatly impacted all areas of society (health, economic, school, social, and so on) and of personal development (individual, family, labour relations…). Family microsystems are vital for their members, as they are the main contexts for their development and socialisation, where they also find much-needed support. Understanding how this crisis has affected families is therefore of the utmost importance. The main purpose of this study is to analyse the main concerns, sources of conflict and the coping strategies perceived as necessary during the COVID-19 lockdown by both foster and non-foster families, and by families with and without children. In this descriptive mix method study 462 people from different regions of Spain participated (79 from foster families, 383 from non-foster families; 311 with children and 151 without children). Specifically, foster families have an average age of 48.6 years and 87.1 % are women; non-foster families 44.3 years and 81 % are women; families with children 45.4 years and 82.6 % are women; and families without children 32.6 years and 79.5 % are women. An online questionnaire was designed with socio-demographic questions, variables on the impact of COVID-19 on the family and three open-ended questions to learn about the families' perceptions during lockdown on: a) main concerns, b) reasons for family conflict, and c) necessary coping resources. Following inductive method, to identify common themes among participants’ responses, content analysis of these answers was carried out. The final categories established with the agreement of all researches of this work are included in the study. Once this process was completed, the SPSS 25.0 program was used to perform descriptive and frequency analyses of the characteristics of each type of family (foster and non-foster families; families with and without children) and to determine the rate of occurrence of each category. Overall, the results showed that the different types of families (being a member of a foster or non-foster family and having or not having children) present differences in their concerns, sources of conflict, and strategies demanded, but they tend to agree with what they reported as most relevant. Concretely, although the participant families are mainly worried about health concerns, they also point out work and family issues (concerns for the family, for the education and discipline of children, and the impact on socio-family relationships), while political issues, such as the management of the pandemic or the situation in the country were not a major source of concern. Particularly, among foster families, concerns related to their own situation (e.g., visits with biological family, the future of the foster child) and, among families with children, financial concerns. Likewise, conflict tend to be presented in participant families during the lockdown, above all those related to the management and organisation of their daily routine. It also highlights the daily coexistence, linked to the lack of space and personal time derived from the lockdown. Finally, families indicate that psycho-emotional support would have been the most needed during lockdown, followed by school support. These results will help those professionals, businesses and politicians to develop social plans that match the needs of families and adapted to their family structure during this crisis and the return to normality. Likewise, to face the current crisis in an optimal way and following the European recommendations, it would be necessary that, on the one hand, the authorities provide families with psycho-educational support to help them improve their family functioning. On the other hand, it would be advisable to strengthen health services and provide more support at the labour, economic and academic level for the proper development of members of the family system and society as a whole.
