IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2021i1p221-d711261.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID-19 Daily Realities for Families: A South African Sample

Author

Listed:
  • Kezia Ruth October

    (Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Children, Families, and Society, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa)

  • Lisa Rene’ Petersen

    (Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Children, Families, and Society, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa)

  • Babatope Adebiyi

    (Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Children, Families, and Society, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa)

  • Edna Rich

    (Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Children, Families, and Society, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa)

  • Nicolette Vanessa Roman

    (Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Children, Families, and Society, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic affected families globally. Empirical research has been explored to understand the impact of COVID-19 on families across countries, however, there are limited findings of how COVID-19 has affected the daily realities of families in South Africa. This study used an exploratory qualitative research approach to explore the experiences of COVID-19 for South African families. Findings suggest that the negative outcomes of COVID-19 experienced by South African families included a shift in the daily routines, restrictions on family events, lack of socialization and loss of connections, family conflicts, financial constraints as well as psychological impacts. On the contrary, the positive outcomes included increased family time and communication, cleanliness, and good health status, and improved financial management. Implications for future research should include research focused on the health impacts of COVID-19 on diverse family structures, family compositions, and family dynamics. In-depth research and findings can assist in developing policies and interventions for families.

Suggested Citation

  • Kezia Ruth October & Lisa Rene’ Petersen & Babatope Adebiyi & Edna Rich & Nicolette Vanessa Roman, 2021. "COVID-19 Daily Realities for Families: A South African Sample," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:221-:d:711261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/221/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/221/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ferdi Botha & Frikkie Booysen, 2014. "Family Functioning and Life Satisfaction and Happiness in South African Households," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 163-182, October.
    2. Anita Padmanabhanunni & Tyrone Pretorius, 2021. "The Loneliness–Life Satisfaction Relationship: The Parallel and Serial Mediating Role of Hopelessness, Depression and Ego-Resilience among Young Adults in South Africa during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-10, March.
    3. Daniela Del Boca & Noemi Oggero & Paola Profeta & Maria Cristina Rossi, 2020. "Women's Work, Housework and Childcare, before and during Covid-19," CESifo Working Paper Series 8403, CESifo.
    4. Cuiyan Wang & Riyu Pan & Xiaoyang Wan & Yilin Tan & Linkang Xu & Cyrus S. Ho & Roger C. Ho, 2020. "Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-25, March.
    5. Mangiavacchi, Lucia & Piccoli, Luca & Pieroni, Luca, 2021. "Fathers matter: Intrahousehold responsibilities and children's wellbeing during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    6. Meredith E. David & James A. Roberts, 2021. "Smartphone Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Social Versus Physical Distancing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-8, January.
    7. Daniela Del Boca & Noemi Oggero & Paola Profeta & Maria Cristina Rossi, 2020. "Women’s Work, Housework and Childcare, before and during COVID-19," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 613, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    8. Achraf Ammar & Hamdi Chtourou & Omar Boukhris & Khaled Trabelsi & Liwa Masmoudi & Michael Brach & Bassem Bouaziz & Ellen Bentlage & Daniella How & Mona Ahmed & Patrick Mueller & Notger Mueller & Hsen , 2020. "COVID-19 Home Confinement Negatively Impacts Social Participation and Life Satisfaction: A Worldwide Multicenter Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-17, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sylvester Kyei-Gyamfi & Frank Kyei-Arthur, 2024. "Parent-child conflicts, and punishment of children during the three-week COVID-19 lockdown in Ghana," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Shulamit Geller & Robi Friedman & Sigal Levy & Yehoshua Akerman & Gal Van den Brink & Guy Romach & Tuli Shazar & Gil Goldzweig, 2022. "The Rough Road: A Single Case Study of Dreamtelling in a Group during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Military Conflict," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-13, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniela Del Boca & Noemi Oggero & Paola Profeta & Maria Cristina Rossi, 2021. "Did COVID-19 Affect the Division of Labor within the Household? Evidence from Two Waves of the Pandemic in Italy," Working Papers 2021-043, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    2. Shaila Jamal & Antonio Paez, 2024. "Well-being implications of immobility during COVID-19: evidence from a student sample in Bangladesh using the satisfaction with life scale," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 2019-2049, October.
    3. Marta Pasqualini & Marta Dominguez Folgueras & Emanuele Ferragina & Olivier Godechot & Ettore Recchi & Mirna Safi, 2022. "Who took care of what? The gender division of unpaid work during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in France," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(34), pages 1007-1036.
    4. Elisa Brini & Mariya Lenko & Stefani Scherer & Agnese Vitali, 2021. "Retraditionalisation? Work patterns of families with children during the pandemic in Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(31), pages 957-972.
    5. Giulia Bettin & Isabella Giorgetti & Stefano Staffolani, 2024. "The impact of Covid-19 lockdown on the gender gap in the Italian labour market," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-33, March.
    6. Hugues Champeaux & Francesca Marchetta, 2021. "Couples in lockdown, "La vie en rose" ? Evidence from France," Working Papers hal-03149087, HAL.
    7. Bonny Yee-Man Wong & Tai-Hing Lam & Agnes Yuen-Kwan Lai & Man Ping Wang & Sai-Yin Ho, 2021. "Perceived Benefits and Harms of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Family Well-Being and Their Sociodemographic Disparities in Hong Kong: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-14, January.
    8. Anna Zamberlan & Filippo Gioachin & Davide Gritti, 2022. "Gender inequality in domestic chores over ten months of the UK COVID-19 pandemic: Heterogeneous adjustments to partners’ changes in working hours," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(19), pages 565-580.
    9. Mathias Huebener & Sevrin Waights & C. Katharina Spiess & Nico A. Siegel & Gert G. Wagner, 2021. "Parental well-being in times of Covid-19 in Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 91-122, March.
    10. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
    11. Cassandra E DiRienzo & Jayoti Das, 2021. "Formal Female Entrepreneurship and the Shadow Economy," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 13(5), pages 63-72.
    12. Boca Daniela del & Oggero Noemi & Profeta Paola & Rossi Maria Cristina, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 on the gender division of housework and childcare: Evidence from two waves of the pandemic in Italy," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, January.
    13. Ali, Umair & Herbst, Chris M. & Makridis, Christos A., 2021. "Minimum Quality Regulations and the Demand for Child Care Labor," IZA Discussion Papers 14684, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Camila Salazar-Fernández & Daniela Palet & Paola A. Haeger & Francisca Román Mella, 2021. "COVID-19 Perceived Impact and Psychological Variables as Predictors of Unhealthy Food and Alcohol Consumption Trajectories: The Role of Gender and Living with Children as Moderators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-13, April.
    15. Jordy Meekes & Wolter H J Hassink & Guyonne Kalb, 2023. "Essential work and emergency childcare: identifying gender differences in COVID-19 effects on labour demand and supply," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 393-417.
    16. Shinsuke Asakawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2021. "Impact of Temporary School Closure Due to COVID-19 on the Academic Achievement of Elementary School Students," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 21-14, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    17. Ainaa, Carmen & Brunetti, Irene & Mussida, Chiara & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Who lost the most? Distributive effects of COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 829, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    18. Kugler, Maurice & Viollaz, Mariana & Duque, Daniel & Gaddis, Isis & Newhouse, David & Palacios-Lopez, Amparo & Weber, Michael, 2023. "How did the COVID-19 crisis affect different types of workers in the developing world?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    19. Matthew A. Ng & Anthony Naranjo & Ann E. Schlotzhauer & Mindy K. Shoss & Nika Kartvelishvili & Matthew Bartek & Kenneth Ingraham & Alexis Rodriguez & Sara Kira Schneider & Lauren Silverlieb-Seltzer & , 2021. "Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerated the Future of Work or Changed Its Course? Implications for Research and Practice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-28, September.
    20. Nataliya Nerobkova & Soo Young Kim & Eun-Cheol Park & Jaeyong Shin, 2022. "Workplace Mistreatment and Health Conditions Prior and during the COVID-19 in South Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-11, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:221-:d:711261. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.