effects of social on families

1.
Author: Shelley M. Vanderhout, Catherine S. Birken, Peter Wong, Sarah Kelleher, Shannon Weir
& Jonathon L. Maguire
Published: 30 November 2020

Children and families have been uniquely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While children
appear to experience milder symptoms from COVID-19 infection than older individuals, sudden
changes in routines, resources, and relationships as a result of restrictions on physical
interaction have resulted in major impacts on families with young children. In the absence of
school, child care, extra-curricular activities and family gatherings, children’s social and support
networks have been broadly disrupted. Stress from COVID-19 has been compounded by
additional responsibilities for parents as they adapt to their new roles as educators and
playmates while balancing full-time caregiving with their own stressful changes to work,
financial and social situations. On the contrary, families with greater parental support and
perceived control have had less perceived stress during COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly sparked research activity across the globe. Patient and
family voices are increasingly considered essential to research agenda and priority setting.
Understanding the physical, mental, and emotional consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic
for families will inform approaches to support parents and children during the pandemic and
after. In this unusual time, patient and family voices can be valuable in informing health
research priorities, study designs, implementation plans and knowledge translation strategies
that directly affect them.
2.
VIOLA GJYLBEGAJ & HUSSEIN MOHAMED ABDI
Abu Dhabi University, UAE
Publication Date: 2019
Media Displacement Effect theory can be summarized as the extensive amount of time spent
on media (social or otherwise) creates a limitation on a person’s mental space and energy; that
it prohibits him/her from providing attention towards other matters. For example, a pedestrian
would be walking down the street with their phone in their hand(s) and not paying attention to
traffic, such acts prohibit the attention span of the person from noticing when a person, should
cross the street, stop for a light sign, or avoid interrupting other people’s walks by slamming
into them by accident. Media has created an atmosphere where a person can be immersed in
the virtual world that relieves them from paying attention to the outside world, past the
dimensions of their phone screen. Specifically, when communicating with each other, media
has facilitated an interconnectedness between one world to the next virtually through Instant
Messaging (IM) and through social media, but in reality; it has compromised on the
face−to−face value of communication. Online communication became the outlet young people
use to maintain and preserve their online relationships in the 21st century, with time being
increased in devotion for that purpose; whereas offline peers subject to abandonment.
Likewise, the negative or positive quality of these relationships could be attributed to the use of
social media and IM; where the quality of the conversation could differ and change from how it
may be online, and how it may be through IM and messaging; creating a sort of dissonance of
communication between young people and their friends/peers (Patti M. Valkenburg, 2007).
Also, displacement theory describes how limited time will become more frequent, and
consistently individuals consume media daily. As indicated in a study done on children’s use of
the Internet and Video Games; to assess the level of social interaction amongst their peers, a
decline was observed in social interaction and psychological well− being which coincided as
observed in the study with low grade levels, and low self−esteem amongst those children; an
attribute towards media displacement theory (Endestad, Heim, Kaare, Torgersen, & Brandtzæg,
2011). On the other hand, research (Oberst, Wegmann, Stodt, Brand, & Chamarro, 2017) relate
high social media engagement to mental health, specifically issues like depression, anxiety, and
loneliness. Mentioning how Facebook structurally seems very attractive to lonely individuals,
and college students with depressive symptoms are more active on Facebook, with the addition
to be content to share their problems publicly. Presenting an individual’s life and daily
experiences is part of the appeal that social media provides for its users. Social media is easy to
use and accessible, where individuals can post and share experiences, whether to express
positive or negative occurrences. Social media has created a virtual world where all these
emotions and interactions are occurring at the same time. But that cannot always be presented
positively within these sites, as it’s shown from the mental health issues associated with and
interlocked inside these sites. Also, connecting these behaviors are, the amount of support and
positive encouragement these individuals would receive from their friends online; which could
be associated to the psychological effect social media has on an individual’s mentality, and the
frequent use of these site by young people especially.
Moreover, to describe social interaction that social media generally provides would refer to, the
mutual participation (social acts, actions, and practices) in which two or more mutually
exclusive individuals are attaching significance towards an interaction, taking into account of
their subjective experiences and intentions towards one another (Rummel, 1975). So, when
that value becomes disjointed through daily conversations with peers and friend from excessive
media consumption, it diminishes the quality of communication an individual can have whether
currently, or in a progressive matter in the future. Opposing, “social isolation is, being ignored
or excluded with or without declaration”. Otherwise, social isolation can cause potentially
damaging effect on an individual; due to sensitivity and need to participate in a social
surrounding. So, normally feeling pain through isolation whether it be physically or mentally
which could be evident when social interaction becomes nonexistent in social media and other
forms of communication (Ahn & Shin, 2013). The internet is created, so everyone participating
in it feels connected and intertwined with one another, but that may not evident in terms of
connectedness in all cases. A way to approach this is through assessing the amount of time
consumed on Internet with factors as proximity and frequency.
3.
Melanie Crew, Evidence and Policy Manager
Publication Date: 2020
During the lockdown, when only 26% of childcare settings were open, many practitioners
provided virtual support to families, to help them with home learning environment activities.
However, there were stark disparities between disadvantaged parents and their more affluent
peers in accessing this support (ACDS 2020). Sutton Trust and IFS surveys found that middle-
class parents were more likely than working-class parents to receive online support from their
provider, and parents with higher levels of education were more likely to have used online
resources (Pascal et al 2020; Andrew et al 2020). Many families living in poverty don’t have the
right kind of devices to support their children’s learning and development, such as touchscreen
tablets and laptops, and are less likely to have access to reliable and fast internet connection
(Save the Children 2020; Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities 2020). Save
the Children states that their partners have reported that in some communities up to 40% of
families are experiencing digital exclusion (Save the Children 2020), while IPPR estimate that
1m families do not have adequate access to a device or connectivity at home (McNeil et al
2020). A Child Poverty Action Group survey during lockdown found that low-income families
were twice as likely to say they lacked all the resources they needed to support learning at
home (Child Poverty Action Group 2020). © The National Literacy Trust 2020 In addition, those
with English as a second language may find it difficult to access parenting advice through online
tools (Wilson and Waddell 2020; Early Intervention Foundation 2020).

4.
Author: Asma Ali Alolyan
Published Date: November 2015

The impact of significant shifts of technology on social and family relations is complex. A
relatively dated paper by Fiedler (1997), argued that the actual effect is likely to be neither as
positive nor as negative as originally hoped for or feared. The emergence of easy, large-scale
access to the internet has generated similar claims, both for the positive results and the
potential impact on existing social norms and relationships. This thesis looks at the relatively
recent uptake of the internet in Saudi Arabia and identifies a number of relevant problems in
making a judgement about the consequences. One is that no social system exists in isolation to
ongoing changes (so the internet is just one of many shifting influences) and equally access to
the internet is all of: a technology (hardware, software), a means to spend time and also a
means to access new information and attitudes. In addition, what is meant by ‘accessing the
internet’ is changing from reliance on fixed computers and limited interaction to the ability to
use mobile phones and hand-held tablets and engage in direct interaction with other users or
available programmers.
Some research on the impact of the internet suggests that it has led to less intra-family
interaction and seen people substituting ‘on-line’ activities for real life interaction. On the other
hand (Campanelli, 2008), other studies suggest this has been overstated, or that time spent
with the internet has substituted for other non-social interactions (such as reading or watching
television). However, these studies are mostly based within Organization for Economic Co-
Operation and Development (OECD) countries and do not address whether or not these
dynamics are different in more traditional, less western, societies such as Saudi Arabia.
In this context there are potentially two related consequences of internet usage. One is the
changing allocation of personal time, and, presumably, loss of time for real life social activities.
Not least with the advent of modern phones, it is possible to be physically present at a family or
social event but mentally engaged with the internet and social networks. The second issue is
that it is an information resource and, in this respect, the internet offers young people access to
different concepts of family life and adolescence than is the norm in their own country.

5.
Loes H. C. Janssen, Marie-Louise J. Kullberg, Bart Verkuil, Noa van Zwieten, Mirjam C. M. Wever,
Lisanne A. E. M. van Houtum, Wilma G. M. Wentholt, Bernet M. Elzinga
Published: October 16, 2020
Due to the COVID- 19 outbreak in the Netherlands (March 2020) and the associated social
distancing measures, families were enforced to stay at home as much as possible. Adolescents
and their families may be particularly affected by this enforced proximity, as adolescents strive
to become more independent. Yet, whether these measures impact emotional well-being in
families with adolescents has not been examined. In this ecological momentary assessment
study, we investigated if the COVID-19 pandemic affected positive and negative affect of
parents and adolescents and parenting behaviors (warmth and criticism). Additionally, we
examined possible explanations for the hypothesized changes in affect and parenting. To do so,
we compared daily reports on affect and parenting that were gathered during two periods of 14
consecutive days, once before the COVID-19 pandemic (2018–2019) and once during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Multilevel analyses showed that only parents’ negative affect increased as
compared to the period before the pandemic, whereas this was not the case for adolescents’
negative affect, positive affect and parenting behaviors (from both the adolescent and parent
perspective). In general, intolerance of uncertainty was linked to adolescents’ and parents’
negative affect and adolescents’ positive affect. However, Intolerance of uncertainty, nor any
pandemic related characteristics (i.e. living surface, income, relatives with COVID-19, hours of
working at home, helping children with school and contact with COVID-19 patients at work)
were linked to the increase of parents’ negative affect during COVID-19. It can be concluded
that on average, our sample (consisting of relatively healthy parents and adolescents) seems to
deal fairly well with the circumstances. The substantial heterogeneity in the data however, also
suggest that whether or not parents and adolescents experience (emotional) problems can vary
from household to household. Implications for researchers, mental health care professionals
and policy makers are discussed.