A recent study by the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine has unveiled the remarkable resilience of Singaporean families with young children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, sheds light on how most families successfully adapted to the challenges posed by the global crisis, highlighting the crucial role of economic, relational, and community factors in fostering resilience.
Revealing The Resilience Pathways of Singapore Families
The paper, authored by Prof. Jean Yeung Wei-Jun and Dr. Chen Xuejiao focused on 2818 Singaporean households before the pandemic hit them as well as during that time. Economic & Relational Resilience The report paints a picture of six well-defined family groups, each demonstrating a range of economic and relational resilience.
Results The vast majority of families were quite resilient and successful in learning how to adjust to the pandemic-related difficulties. Exceptions to these general patterns, however, are important, because they suggest the possibility that resilience may be complex and depend on other processes with the family. In a similar vein, families with more socioeconomic resources before the pandemic were nonetheless also better off economically post-pandemic, and those with good relational factors that attract considerable amounts of resilience towards these are seen (i.e. maternal self-efficacy; quality family time; supportive neighborhoods) had higher scores on our measure of relational resilience.
Resilience and the Resources of Individuals, Families, and Communities
Results from this research provide important implications on the multifaceted influence of individual-, household- and community-level factors in facilitating family resilience during a public health emergency. Personal psychological dispositions that are conducive to post-traumatic growth and resilience will enhance family outcomes at an individual level, such as self-efficacy.
On a family level, carrying low child care burdens, marrying effectively with your partner and ensuring good quality of the time together that you spend as a family is what will help either maintain or prevent/cure familial ties in crisis. In addition, the findings of this study highlights the importance of living in a secure and cohesive neighbourhood that can protect or enhance family well-being in response to environmental stresses.
Family Resourcefulness for Sustainability
Findings of the grant-supported study underscore a need to marshal individual and environmental resources to help families weather tough times and rebound, building resilience over time. While much was unavoidable, what is clear from this time is that families on the economic edge needed government and community support to stay afloat amidst this crisis; in turn highlighting the incredible necessity of intervention programs.
These research findings provide important information for policymakers, practitioners and community leaders to create more effective responses focused on strategies that matter the most in enhancing family resilience — especially with large scale global challenges like the COVID-19 epidemic that have the potential of increasing inequities. This analysis suggests potential responses to strengthen family and child well-being by: 1) better understanding the ways in which economic and relational resilience are intertwined, utilizing policy approaches that promote stability across generations, while also allowing for a focus on immediate economic supports; 2) focusing interventions to match the complex patchwork of experiences families face during this pandemic;(payment extensions alongside cash support can help stabilize income without placing limitations, for example).
