The way to school was often not the norm during the pandemic. Children had to study at home, even if that was difficult in many families.
Photo: dpa/Julian Stratenschulte
What do families really need in the Corona pandemic? Experts discussed this question on Thursday evening at a panel discussion in Berlin. Families have been burdened overall, but some much more than others. The experts agreed on that. Studies show that life satisfaction within families has fallen since the pandemic began.
However, young people and young adults who are concerned regarding the money in their families or regarding their own financial opportunities were and are particularly burdened, explained Sabine Andresen from the Goethe University in Frankfurt. The proportion of young people who are afraid of the future has “significantly increased” compared to the beginning of the corona pandemic.
Families who recently moved to Germany also had to contend with particularly serious restrictions. Even the – compared to refugees – relatively privileged groups of Poles and Turks had disadvantages as a result of the pandemic, for example when learning a language, says Claudia Diehl from the University of Konstanz. Establishing contacts was also more difficult for migrants than before the pandemic. “The pandemic really made integration more difficult,” reports Diehl, who worked on a study on the subject. The acquisition of language skills and contacts are important for what people later earn. “Especially for women, this is crucial to ensure that they become active on the labor market at all,” says Diehl. The transfer of language courses to virtual courses during the pandemic is also particularly fatal for those who need these courses most.
At the panel discussion, which was initiated by the scientific advisory board for family issues at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs and by the Ravensburger Verlag Foundation, more positive developments were also addressed. The unequal division of housework and care work between men and women has not changed as much as was feared at the beginning of the pandemic, said Michaela Kreyenfeld from the Hertie School of Governance Berlin. Some scientists are still assuming a rollback of up to 50 years in 2020.
But there were big differences within the families. Not much has changed for those who had divided the care work roughly equally before the pandemic. But in families in which the woman mainly took care of the household and children before the pandemic, “the gap has widened much further,” says Katharina Spieß, Director of the Federal Institute for Population Research.
Especially during the lockdown period, there was a lot of talk regarding systemically important facilities and critical infrastructure, the failure or impairment of which would have lasting negative effects. This includes, for example, the food trade, banks, medical care and museums. Help offers for families and children, however, are not included. According to Jörg M. Fegert from the University Hospital Ulm, the loss of school supervision and all support measures now has serious psychosocial consequences for children. In part, social workers maintained their relationship with the children through personal commitment, but without payment, during the pandemic.
“Who else can children turn to? We know that the school is the central place of protection, »explained Fegert with regard to the increase in family violence. “It is very, very important that we keep an eye on these necessary support infrastructures,” says Fegert. “Child protection is systemically important.” The panellists agree that disadvantaged families in particular, such as those with a refugee background or those in poverty, must be given much more political attention in the future. More financial help is also needed. So far, this has often not arrived where it is most urgently needed.