Working parents dealing with coronavirus quarantines will face psychological challenges
来源:The Conversation
更新:2020-03-31 11:15:31 作者:Marisa Young
Because of this forced or volunteer social distancing, many parents are now dealing with the new normal of having to work while parenting full time. Keep in mind, those who work remotely tend to be wealthier with bigger spaces. This quarantine can be extra challenging for multi-generational families, families living in close quarters and multi-family homes.
Parents will endure more than what might be psychologically manageable given their levels of work-family conflict during this crisis. These scenarios will likely be greatest amongst front-line workers. It is important to recognize the long term effects of these experiences: This type of chronic stress does not manifest itself immediately.
COVID-19 is uncovering an underlying problem regarding parents’ access to family-friendly community resources, including child care, education services and recreational facilities. Most susceptible are parents with young children who rely on the available resources of their local community to help with day-to-day child care and social support.
Canadian provincial and federal governments have been quick to respond to the child-care demand of front-line workers during the COVID-19 crisis. Several Canadian provinces have provided emergency child-care centres for those in need, limiting numbers and taking special precautions to adhere to social distancing protocols.
Trudeau’s government has also committed $2 million to supplement the Canadian Child Benefit for qualifying parents. The former efforts are formidable in their immediate impact. The latter’s, questionable. Federal funds can help replace lost wages and allow parents not to work while caring for their children during this time, but money cannot help parents hire caregivers while working from home, given social distancing and isolation measures.
Moving forward, we need to recognize the importance of community resources for parents in a post-COVID-19 world. At the provincial level, most funding cuts have targeted family and community facilities, as well as safe affordable child care options.
The provision of these resources might reduce work-family conflict — and therefore a prolific mental health risk — in the general population. We know that seven out of 10 parents experience this stressor daily. These numbers are likely growing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
These times are arduous for working parents and we need to make sure we take care of them in the long run as well as other vulnerable populations. The benefits of which we will observe in generations to come.
Marisa Young, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Canadian Research Chair in Mental Health and Work-Life Transitions, McMaster University