Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant influences on the lives of people of all age groups around the globe. Its seriousness can be understood in terms of the worldwide infected (17, 106, 007) and death (668, 910) cases of COVID-19 by July 31, 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020). Due to the unprecedented and unparallel restrictions, fear and uncertainty, COVID-19 has created an indescribable situation of anguish and pain in the whole of humanity. It has created severe mass distress, anxiety, uncertainty, panic and challenges to the life outcomes of children and adults (Jiao et al., 2020; Tiwari, Singh, et al., 2020). United Nations Organization (2020) has observed that children are one of the biggest sufferers of this pandemic and its negative influences may be significantly shaped by the economic and social conditions of families and their health conditions. Children are facing acute availability to the needed resources, social support and services which may lead them to bear the pain of psychological distress, violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation which, in turn, may badly affect their development and well-being (Avenue et al., 2020; Lee, 2020). These negative consequences for children may go beyond imagination since the current pandemic is more traumatic, pervasive and uncertain (Galea et al., 2020; Tiwari, Pandey, et al., 2020; Tiwari, Rai, et al., 2020).
The family acts as an important and universal agency which provides care for children. Various forms of families with different structures and functions are found. One typology is a joint family and the nuclear family. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2020a), a joint family is a consanguineal unit that includes two or more generations of kindred related through either paternal or maternal line who maintain a common residence and are subject to common social, economic and religious regulations. A nuclear family is defined as a group that consists only of parents and children (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2020b). The joint family system is the major vehicle of collective values which are guided by shared identity, deep attachments, unique socialization, emotionality, meaning, relationships, concern for others, interdependence and relatively permanent relationships (Cai et al., 2013; Gaines et al., 1997; Hoshino-Browne et al., 2005; Scabini & Manzi, 2010). Parallel to this, a nuclear family is based on individualistic values and lays emphasis on individual identity, independence, self-esteem and personal achievements (Cai et al., 2013; Gupta & Sukamto, 2020; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).
Dissimilar life outcomes have been linked with the two-family systems. For example, a joint family is more supportive for children to achieve psychological well-being than a nuclear family (Gul et al., 2017). The differences in the outcomes of children of the two family systems have been assumed to be the results of dissimilarities in parent relations and social relations (Bernardi et al., 2013; Mackay, 2005), kin rivalry (Kreppner, 2013) and parental resources, the mental health of parents, parent-child relations, quality of relationships between parents and parental discrepancy (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007; Y. Sun & Li, 2002). A study has shown that the children of joint families show better performance on the various components of psychological well-being such as autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations, purpose in life and self-acceptance as compared to their nuclear family counterparts (Gul et al., 2017). Children from joint families show lower behavioural problems (Kauts & Kaur, 2016) and higher emotional maturity (Kondiba & Hari, 2018).
There is an explicit gap in the literature as previous studies on children have been limited to less severe natural or man-made adversities on the life outcomes of children (Klein et al., 2009; Lee, 2020; United Nations Organization, 2020). It has been argued that the psychological impacts of COVID-19 for the general population has been well-documented and there is a lack of studies involving parents, families and children (Brooks et al., 2020; Jiao et al., 2020). The distress of the current pandemic has severely influenced the life outcome of children similar to adults (Wang et al., 2020). The study of children is also important for other reasons. Families differ in providing care and support to their children. For example, a joint family may provide more live, long-term and varied positive stimulations emanating from the dynamics of relationships among children, siblings, parents, grandparents and other relatives. On the other hand, a nuclear family may become naturally restrictive and less live and short-term stimulating due to the limited size and variety of relationships.
The unprecedented challenges created by the current pandemic may have exerted its impacts on the functioning of different family systems and individuals including children in a novel, severe and less-known manner. It compelled the authors to choose a qualitative research design for capturing the roles of joint and nuclear families in providing protections to their children from the ill-consequences of COVID-19. Qualitative methods have been recommended to be useful in situations where there is no guiding framework, theory, measures and the phenomenon is novel (Creswell, 2014). Due to the nationwide restrictions of lockdown and quarantine in India to prevent further spreading of COVID-19, the basic and detailed information regarding the behaviours and experiences of children were not possible to measure. Thus, parents, especially full-time mothers remain the chief source of data regarding their children. A full-time mother was the incessant primary caregiver from birth to the present (Ahirwar et al., 2019). In some previous studies, collecting data from the parents, especially full-time mothers of younger children have been reported to be useful (Ahirwar et al., 2019; Tiwari, Singh, et al., 2020). The current study chose children between 9 years to 12 years. This age group was chosen since the children of this age group remain dependent on their parents and other family members for their satisfaction of needs and care to some extent. Besides, these children are able to speak out their demands, show understandable emotional and behavioural responses. This makes their behaviour comprehensive, stable and patterned. Besides, these children also understand the necessity and compulsion of the adherence to the restrictions of the lockdown. It has been suggested that the children of this age group develop some sense of life goals, able to share their positive and negative experiences with their caregivers and reflect some understanding of life realities and broader human collectives (Tiwari, Singh, et al., 2020). In this backdrop, the present study aims to explore the protective roles of joint and nuclear families in shaping the life outcomes of children with age ranging between 9 years to 12 years during the restrictions of COVID-19 through a qualitative research design. The telephonic mode of data collection was adopted since face-to-face interaction was restricted due to restrictions of lockdown.
Methods
Research Design
The current study employed a qualitative research design. The data were collected through a telephonic semi-structured interview protocol to come up with a deeper understanding of the full-time mothers’ descriptions and experiences of the happenings and restrictions of the pandemic, and the role of two-family systems regarding their children. The study used a constructivist approach which refers to a dialogical exchange between the interviewers and interviewees to the experiences and meanings held by them (Levitt et al., 2017, 2018).
Participants
Initially, 27 full-time mothers from 15 joint and 12 nuclear families were contacted on their phones through a snowball technique and asked to take part in the study. Out of these, only 16 mothers with the age range between 33 years to 45 years gave their telephonic consent. Eight mothers were from joint families (Mean Age = 41.63, SD = 2.62) and the rest 8 were from nuclear families (Mean Age = 37.50, SD = 3.07). The age range of their children was 9 years to 12 years (Mean Age = 10.66, SD = 1.17). The sample was selected from the Indian cities such as Sagar, New Delhi, Varanasi and Lucknow (See Table 1).