Shek Daniel T L, Leung Janet T Y, Tan Lindan
Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong.
Appl Res Qual Life. 2023 Feb 24:1-17. doi: 10.1007/s11482-023-10147-2.
COVID-19 has generated many negative impacts on the family, including impaired psychological well-being of family members (parents and children) and family processes (such as parenting and family functioning). Regarding social policies to support families under the pandemic, there are several missing links. First, COVID-19 related policies mainly focus on physical well-being with a relatively weaker emphasis on psychological well-being. Second, with social policies primarily aiming at stabilizing the "financial capital" of the public, human capital (particularly personal resilience) and social capital (particularly family resilience) are relatively neglected. Third, while "general" social policies may help "averaged" individuals and families, there is a need to take pre-existing family vulnerabilities (such as poverty and caregiving burdens) and inequalities into account when formulating "down to earth" social policies. Fourth, while social science knowledge and theories have important potential contributions to help develop relevant policies and services to promote quality of life under COVID-19, explicit utilization is not strong. With reference to these missing links, we proposed several research and practice directions for the promotion of quality of life under the pandemic.
新冠疫情对家庭产生了诸多负面影响，包括家庭成员（父母和子女）心理健康受损以及家庭过程（如养育子女和家庭功能）受到影响。关于疫情期间支持家庭的社会政策，存在几个缺失环节。首先，与新冠疫情相关的政策主要侧重于身体健康，而对心理健康的重视相对较弱。其次，由于社会政策主要旨在稳定公众的“金融资本”，人力资本（特别是个人复原力）和社会资本（特别是家庭复原力）相对被忽视。第三，虽然“一般性”社会政策可能有助于“普通”个人和家庭，但在制定“切实可行”的社会政策时，有必要考虑到先前存在的家庭脆弱性（如贫困和照料负担）以及不平等问题。第四，虽然社会科学知识和理论在帮助制定相关政策和服务以促进新冠疫情下的生活质量方面具有重要潜在贡献，但实际应用并不充分。针对这些缺失环节，我们提出了若干在疫情期间促进生活质量的研究和实践方向。
