Family life under COVID-19: major new study launched at UCL

The study is the first of its kind, looking to get in-depth information about the kinds of challenges faced by families during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The research will focus on families with children and will examine how well families understand the public health measures put in place, how the responses to these are negotiated within households, and what new kinds of pressures families are under during lockdown restrictions. The researchers are particularly interested in how socio-economic differences shape families’ responses to and experiences of the pandemic. 
 
The study will draw on diaries and in-depth interviews with participants, giving a fine-grained detail into the everyday lives of families in the UK during these times. Given the continuing crisis with COVID-19, researchers will be using the cutting-edge online app Indeemo for the project.

Dr Katherine Twamley, project lead, said: "I’m delighted to be launching this research project, which we hope will have important insights for policy-makers not only about how families are coping with the current pandemic, but how better to plan for future pandemics too."

FACT-Covid is part of a larger consortium of projects (I-Co-FACT) led by UCL in collaboration with eight sister sites including:

• USA, led from the University of California, Los Angeles
• Argentina, led from NYU
• Chile, led from Universidad de Santiago
• South Africa, led from University of Johannesburg
• Sweden, led from Boras University
• Taiwan, led from National Taipei University and Keele University
• Pakistan, led from the Collective for Social Science Research
• Singapore, led from National University of Singapore

Comparison with other countries’ responses will allow researchers to better understand the role of local policies and cultural meanings and practices that shape individuals’ responses to and experiences of the pandemic.

Take part in the study

Links

• Find out more about FACT-Covid
• FACT Covid: Families and Community Transitions under Covid
• View Dr Katherine Twamley's research profile
• View Dr Humera Iqbal's research profile
• View Dr Charlotte Faircloth's research profile
• Thomas Coram Research Unit
• Department of Social Science

Image

Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash