探究新冠肺炎第一波疫情對經濟不利家庭之衝擊—以某協會經濟不利家庭之消費教育團體為例

Exploring the impacts of the first wave of Covid-19 on economically disadvantaged families—the experiences of members of a family consumption group of a NPO in Taipei.

張鈺欣(Chang Yu-Shin)

指導教授 ： 王永慈

國立臺灣師範大學/國際與社會科學學院/社會工作學研究所/碩士(2021年)

https://doi.org/10.6345/NTNU202101150

摘要

2019年年底開始蔓延的新冠肺炎（COVID-19），至今已在世界各地盛行，並造成公共衛生、醫療照護等層面的問題，各國為避免疫情蔓延而採取的封鎖、隔離措施，亦造成其他後續問題，如：經濟放緩與衰退、工時縮減、勞工就業問題等。在我國，新冠肺炎疫情對社會整體及醫療系統帶來了極大的風險，同時也使得許多「家庭」不得不在極短的時間內，選擇與採取應對家庭問題的手段，在措手不及的情形之下，可能因此帶來了許多意料之外的挑戰。本研究旨在探索新冠肺炎疫情對於經濟不利家庭的影響，以及經濟不利家庭為因應疫情所引發的家庭問題、危機之策略等，其中並採深度訪談法、參與觀察法，對於某協會消費教育團體成員中的6名家庭主要照顧者，以及4名12歲以上的兒少進行資料蒐集，經過分析後，本研究結果發現如下：
一、對經濟不利家庭而言，新冠肺炎是一種病毒所引起的大型流行疾病，但相對於病毒詳細資訊的取得或瞭解，受訪者更關注的是疫情發展對家庭經濟層面的影響，以及如何避免家庭成員染疫。
二、疫情的發展對經濟不利家庭所帶來的，除了最為明顯的家庭經濟、就業與債務等問題外，對疫情發展遲遲沒有終點、對未知疾病的恐懼等也都造成他們心理上不安與焦慮的情緒。然而在社會層面中的親友關係，受訪者反而認為比疫情爆發前更為緊密。
三、疫情期間，經濟不利家庭最常透過資源交換的方式，將某一項家庭資源轉換為另一項可以使用、因應家庭問題的資源。而其中，最容易描述與進行轉換的是家庭財務（經濟）資源，然而，其他的家庭資源亦有其重要性。
四、家庭決策中，親子互動與決策權力的分配，在決策制訂與協調的過程中至關重要，而隨著家中子女的發展與成長，孩子在家庭決策中的參與程度也會增加，特別是青少年子女、開始成為家庭資源提供者的孩子，更容易成為經濟不利家庭進行決策時諮詢及採納意見等的對象。
五、疫情期間，當家庭照顧者願意公開家庭實際狀況與相關資訊給家庭成員，以及更為通透的溝通渠道時，對於家庭成員發展出共同應對家庭問題的措施將有所助益。
六、消費教育團體方案能提供追查家庭及個人消費流向及管控支出的技巧，也成為某些受訪者因應疫情所引起的家庭問題時的一項資源，其中兒少參與者更容易將所習得的消費管理知識、技能等延伸並運用於日常生活中。家長則大多認同該團體方案提供的是如：「親子關係變佳」、「手足關係變好」、「更重視家中兒少的意見與觀點」，以及「為學校的數學課程內容找到實踐的機會」等附加的效果。
此外，本文文末則說明本研究的限制，並針對未來的研究、新冠肺炎相關政策，以及實務層面提供建議，茲說明如下：
一、對實務工作層面的建議：
（一）親友關係、親子關係、手足關係，在疫情期間對經濟不利家庭成員而言是一項重要的支持與資源。
（二）疫情期間，穩定且長期的社工服務介入對經濟不利家庭而言有其重要性。
（三）家庭財務教育可能可以增加經濟不利家庭，在疫情期間因應家庭財務問題的能力。
（四）家庭資源管理能力的提升，將能協助經濟不利家庭在疫情期間更好地確認與運用資源，以應對其後續的家庭問題。
二、對新冠肺炎相關政策的建議：
（一）紓困補助措施的資訊不夠明確。
（二）三倍振興券對經濟不利家庭的意義「紓困大於振興」，且數位落差也造成處於數位弱勢的經濟不利家庭成員獲取其他振興券（如：藝FUN券等）時遭到排擠。
（三）近貧家庭在疫情期間的困境更需要被關注。
（四）短期性質的紓困急難救助措施對經濟不利家庭的幫助十分有限。
（五）經濟不利家庭難以負擔漲價後的防疫物資。
（六）當延後開學消息發佈後，臨時托育服務支持不足，並造成照顧者們的困擾。
三、對未來研究的建議：
（一）增加更多不同背景的研究對象。
（二）建議未來有縱貫性及長期性的相關研究投入。

關鍵字

Covid-19 ； 新冠肺炎 ； 經濟不利家庭 ； 家庭資源管理與運用 ； 家庭決策 ； 消費教育 ； 消費教育團體方案

並列摘要

COVID-19 that started to spread by the end of 2019 has become a pandemic all over the world, and it has caused the issues in public health as well as medical care. The lockdown, along with measures of isolation and quarantine adopted by each country to prevent epidemic, also creates other problems subsequently, such as the slowdown and recession of economic, shortened working hours, labor employment issues, etc. In Taiwan, the epidemic has brought great risks to the whole society and medical system. At the same time, many "families" have to choose and take measures to deal with family problems in a very short period of time. Under this kind of unexpected circumstance, it might further generate a lot of unanticipated challenges. This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the economically disadvantaged families as well as the family problems and strategies for risks caused to the economically disadvantaged families in order to respond to the epidemic. In-depth interview and participant observation are used to collect data from the 6 main family caregivers among a consumer educational group in one association and 4 children above 12 years old. After analysis, the outcome of the study is as below:
1. For economically disadvantaged families, COVID-19 is a large-scale pandemic caused by virus; however, rather than the acquisition and understanding of the detailed information about the virus, the respondents care more about the impact of the development of epidemic on the economic aspect towards the family as well as how to avoid family members to be infected.
2. In addition to the outstanding problems in family finance, employment, and debts, the seemingly unending epidemic and the fear to unknown disease also make the economically disadvantaged families mentally stressed and anxious. However, in terms of the relationship with relatives and friends at the social aspect, the respondents all think the relationship is closer than that of in pre-epidemic times.
3. During the epidemic, the economically disadvantaged families most often convert one family resource to another resource that can be used and dealt with family problems through the method of resource exchange. Among them, the resource that is easy to be described and exchanged is family finance (economy). However, other family resources are also important.
4. In terms of family decision, parent-child interaction and the allocation of decision-making power are crucial during the process of decision making and negotiation. Along with the development and growth of children in the family, the degree of participation of children in the family decision will also increase. Particularly, teenagers and children who start to become a provider of family resource are more likely to be asked for the opinion, and their opinions tend to be accepted during the decision making in the economically disadvantaged families.
5. When family caregivers are willing to disclose the actual family situation and relevant information to the family members during the epidemic as well as to become open to more transparent communication channels, it is helpful for all the family members to develop measures to deal with the problems that the family faces together.
6. Solutions from the consumer educational group are able to provide the investigation in the flow of family and personal consumption as well as skills in controlling expenditure. It has also become one of the resources that some respondents use to deal with the family issues caused by the epidemic. Child participants especially tend to use the knowledge of consumption management and skills that they learn in the daily life. Parents mostly recognize the value-added effects provided by the solutions from that group, such as “better parent-child relationship”, “better sibling relationship”, “value the opinions and viewpoints of the children in the family more”, and “finding opportunities for implementing the teaching content of mathematics in the school”.
Moreover, the last part of the article explains the restriction of the study as well as provides suggestions for the future research, relevant policies for COVID-19, and practical aspects. The summary includes the following:
1. Suggestions for the practical working aspects:
a. Relationship with relatives and friends, parent-child relationship, and sibling relationship are an important support and resource for members in the economically disadvantaged families during the epidemic.
b. During the epidemic, stable and long-term social service intervention plays an important role to the economically disadvantaged families.
c. Education on family finance might be able to enhance the ability of dealing with finance problems among the economically disadvantaged families during the epidemic.
d. The enhancement of ability in managing family resources will be able to assist the economically disadvantaged families to confirm and use the resources better during the epidemic in order to deal with the subsequent family problems.
2. Suggestions for the policies related to COVID-19:
a. The information on the relief package is not clear enough.
b. The meaning of triple stimulus vouchers to the economically disadvantaged families is “relief instead of stimulus”. Besides, digital gap also causes exclusion for the economically disadvantaged families with digital vulnerability to acquire other stimulus vouchers (such as Arts FUN Go vouchers).
c. The difficult situation that the near-poor households face during the epidemic shall be paid more attention.
d. The actual assistance that the short-term relief plan to the economically disadvantaged families is very limited.
e. The economically disadvantaged families cannot afford the epidemic prevention materials after price increasing.
f. The support in temporary child care service after announcing the late start of the school is insufficient, and it causes distress to the caregivers
3. Suggestions for future research:
a. Having more research objects in different backgrounds.
b. Suggesting having longitudinal research and long-term research in the future

並列關鍵字

Covid-19 ； new crown epidemic pneumonia ； economically disadvantaged families ； family resource management and application ； family decision-making ； consumer education ； consumer education group program

參考文獻

張芬芬（2010）。質性資料分析的五步驟: 在抽象階梯上爬升。初等教育學刊，35，87-120。

參考文獻：

原文資料：

Ahmed, M. Z., Ahmed, O., Aibao, Z., Hanbin, S., Siyu, L., & Ahmad, A. (2020). Epidemic of COVID-19 in China and associated psychological problems. Asian journal of psychiatry, 51, 102092. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102092

Ahuja, R., & Stinson, K. M. (1993). Female-Headed Single Parent Families: An Exploratory Study of Children's Influence in Family Decision Making. Advances in Consumer Research, 20, 469-474.