Co-Constructing COVID-19: Learning Relational Practices From Families Facing a Global Pandemic
Date
2024-07-05
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Abstract
During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, families around the world experienced a cascade of unanticipated changes to their daily living. The effects of a disaster event, such as a pandemic, can contribute to a decline in mental and/or relational health, and the family system has the potential to promote recovery and resilience by buffering such risks. Despite the surge of research on the pandemic since 2020, much of the literature about disaster events (the pandemic included) tend to focus on the individual, lacking representation of the family system. In addition, practical resources targeting post-disaster recovery is limited, including guidance for families and mental health practitioners who support families. The purpose of this research was to: (a) better understand families’ relational experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic by nature of their interpersonal patterns; (b) expand the empirical representation of pragmatic, family-focused research on natural disasters from a systems and social constructionist lens; and (c) disseminate practical knowledge, information, and resources to support family recovery and therapeutic intervention following disaster. I conducted virtual, multi-member family interviews with six families from Calgary, Alberta, Canada and surrounding areas within the first year of the pandemic. Drawing from family systems theory and social constructionism, I integrated the IPscope, a family therapy tool for assessment and intervention, with interpretive description as a method for data construction and analysis. Based on the findings, I constructed two conceptual models of families’ interpersonal patterns during the pandemic that demonstrate the benefits of the family system in navigating a disaster event.
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Natural disaster, Pandemic, COVID-19, Disaster recovery, Family relationships, IPscope, Interpersonal patterns, Patterns of interaction, Interpretive description, Counselling psychology, Family therapy
Citation
Stone, J. M. (2024). Co-constructing COVID-19: learning relational practices from families facing a global pandemic (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.