At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, the remote modality required rapid reorganization in the work-family relationship. Research on the subject conducted at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) was awarded in a national contest for scientific articles promoted by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes).
The research that gave rise to the winning article is part of the doctoral project of Marcela Alves Andrade, a student in the Postgraduate Program in Physiotherapy at UFSCar and a FAPESP scholarship, under the guidance of Tatiana Sato, professor in the Department of Physiotherapy.
Andrade participated in the Capes Scientific Articles Contest on “Strengthening family ties in times of a pandemic”. She came in second in the category “Work-family balance strategies in the context of social isolation”.
The work shows that professionals in the education sector were the ones who faced the most difficulties in the work-family relationship at the beginning of the pandemic. And at the other extreme are people over 60.
The research, which began in 2020, is part of the study “Implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on psychosocial aspects and work ability in Brazilian workers – longitudinal study (IMPPAC)”. The main objective is to assess psychosocial aspects and the ability to work in professionals from various economic sectors, with longitudinal follow-up for 12 months.
Online questionnaires were applied to 1,698 workers, including the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ II-Br), developed in Denmark, translated and adapted into Brazilian Portuguese by the group led by Professor Sato.
The instrument covers a series of aspects, among which the conflict between work and family, the subject of the scientific article competition. “From the article, we were able to explore this aspect in more depth”, explains Sato.
“We had to change our way of working and relating to work and family at home. It was all very sudden, unexpected and unpredictable. So, this topic is very relevant and interesting”, highlights the professor.
In this context, the study identified that the conflict was lower in people over 60 years of age, “which we attribute to the greater experience in dealing with work and family, and also to the fact that older workers may have had a reduction of the workload in the pandemic because they are part of the risk group”.
Other important points highlighted in the research refer to work in the education sector and the fear of being contaminated at work. These factors, according to the research advisor, were associated with the conflict between work and family: “We know that teachers were highly impacted by remote teaching, which generated an increase in work demands and the chance of conflicts with family life”.
Regarding the fear of contamination, the teacher reports that, at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot of fear that family members could be contaminated and, as a result of this insecurity, many professionals reported during the research that their family members wanted them to leave their professions, especially those in the health area, or change jobs, even if momentarily, so that the risk could be minimized. “Thus, the emotional and psychological stress due to the fear of contamination may have caused conflicts between different family members”, emphasizes the researcher.
work-family conflict
The professor points out, however, that some initial hypotheses of the study were not confirmed. One of them is related to parenthood, that is, to the assumption that the presence of children would be associated with work-family conflict. “We discussed this aspect, understanding that children generate demands, but they may also have contributed to improving relationships between work and family, since workers with children had more moments of family distraction and, thus, were able to better manage the wear and tear caused by the confinement”, explains Sato.
Another expectation of the study was that women had a greater chance of conflict between work and family, due to the demands with household chores and family care, which was also not confirmed.
The study also showed that social interaction is important for individual and collective well-being and that not all workers can positively reconcile the demands of work and family. “The return to face-to-face activities and support networks can help in this process. It is essential that families pay attention to changes in behavior, seek to separate work activities from activities with the family and dedicate themselves more to leisure inside and outside the family environment”, recommends Sato.