SINGAPORE — With families staying home to fight Covid-19, one negative outcome is that domestic violence is on the rise, but on the positive side, men assuming a larger domestic role and seniors sharpening their technological know-how could gradually become the norm.

At the same time, support for vulnerable groups, such as low-income and single-parent households, should extend beyond the pandemic.

These are some of the points made by a group of panellists on Thursday (May 21) at a discussion about family ties during the pandemic. The talk, titled Will the Pandemic Make or Break the Family, was hosted by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) and live streamed on Facebook.

On how family dynamics have changed since the pandemic began, sociologist Jean Yeung from the National University of Singapore (NUS) said that the role of fathers in caring for children could take a front seat, albeit gradually. 

Based on findings from the Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study done last year, children here were spending nearly four hours a day with their mothers on weekdays. By contrast, they were spending less than two hours with their fathers. 

Professor Yeung said that on weekends, the time both parents spend with their children was a lot more equal. She hopes that with families staying home during the circuit breaker to contain Covid-19, this would now be the case on weekdays, too. 

“It is quite likely that the trend for a lot more fathers’ and men’s involvement in housework and childcare will happen, even though it is gradual,” Prof Yeung said. 

Her hope is that fathers who now work from home are having a “first-seat view of how home life is like”, as they interact with their children and do housework.

Prof Yeung, who is also from the Centre for Family and Population Research at NUS, was joined on the panel by senior research fellow Ng Kok Hoe from LKYSPP, Mr Ishak Ismail, chairman of the Families for Life Council, and Assistant Professor Tan Poh Lin of LKYSPP, who moderated the discussion. 

Another upside of the Covid-19 movement controls, the experts said, is that seniors are being acquainted with technology, such as video calling, to help them stay in touch with family and friends. This could boost intergenerational ties, they added. 

Prof Yeung said: “A lot of older folk are learning of new technologies to connect with the outside world, certainly with their children and with their friends. 

“There are many elderly people who live alone and they need these kinds of technology a lot more.” 

Dr Ng said that finding longer-term solutions to ease the loneliness of seniors is important, given that the number of elders living with their children is on the decline.

“Rather than focus on whether older people live with their children, it is more important to think about where they meet their needs for social connection and belonging,” he said.

EMERGING PROBLEMS CANNOT BE IGNORED

While stay-home orders have had some upsides, the experts said that the detrimental effects of the circuit breaker on some families cannot be swept under the rug even after the pandemic ebbs.

Prof Yeung said that the financial strain brought about by the economic slowdown as well as the proximity to one another due to stay-home curbs have created distress and anxiety for some families. These have given rise to family tensions and domestic violence.

Indeed, there have been more calls for help in recent months. Since the circuit breaker started on April 7, the Ministry of Social and Family Development and social service agencies reported a jump in referrals and enquiries related to domestic conflicts and violence. The ministry's adult and child protective services, for instance, registered a 14 per cent rise in enquiries in the first two weeks of the circuit breaker.

Earlier this month, the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware), a gender-equality advocacy group, said that it received 596 calls in April — more than 120 of these were about family violence, and they were more than twice the number of such calls received in the same month last year.

The experts on Thursday’s panel also said that vulnerable groups — including low-income families, single-parent households, homeless individuals and migrant workers — face higher risks, such as in food security and housing, than “intact families” during the pandemic. 

Dr Ng said: “This crisis should awaken us to the reality that as a society, we have not yet enabled everyone’s basic needs to be met.” 

These needs must be brought to the heart of social policymaking, even after the Covid-19 crisis blows over, he said. 

On how families can stay strong during the pandemic, Mr Ishak from the Families for Life Council said that rather than viewing the present movement curbs as an obligation to spend time at home, families should see the crisis as an opportunity to improve family ties.

“Recognise that this is your family,” he said. “Open up and find meaning in figuring out how to communicate.”