By Disa Bergnehr, (Linneaus University), Laura Darcy & Annelie J Sundler (University Of Borås)
It has been a year since the first case of Covid-19 in Sweden, and the soon to follow outbreak and spread throughout society. The ensuing policies that the Swedish government and Public Health Agency launched and have relied on to handle the pandemic differ a great deal from other nations around the globe. There has been no lockdown, rather the Swedish Covid-19 strategy is based on recommendations and few stipulating legal rules that inform people what to do. Some lawful restrictions have been introduced, such as a maximum number of people at cultural events, restricted opening hours for pubs and restaurants and closed libraries and pools for a short period of time. Upper secondary schools (with 16-19 years-old students) turned to on-line teaching for a couple of months during spring 2020 and winter 2020/2021 while higher education has generally been conducted on-line since spring 2020. Visiting care homes for the elderly was forbidden between April and October 2020. Apart from these restrictions, preschools, primary and middle schools, gyms, out-of-school activities for children, shops and shopping malls have stayed open. Most workplaces have also remained open but mainly with possibilities to work from home.
The main recommendations to the public have been: wash your hands, keep social distance, stay at home if any signs of a cold, work from home if possible, restrict socialising to those in the household, and, if 70 years old or older, self-isolate and limit the number of contacts to a minimum. How then have Swedish families interpreted, experienced and acted upon the Swedish Covid-19 policies? We have collected data from close to 40 individuals so far: adolescents (15-19 years of age), parents (with children between 1-19 years old) and grandparents (with grandchildren below 20 years of age). They live in single parent-, step-family- or nuclear family households and are middle-class and working class. The data represents those both Swedish born and foreign born, residing in large cities and small towns, in the south to north and east to west. We have asked the study participants about their everyday life, relationships and wellbeing during the pandemic. Here, we present some preliminary findings.
Everyday life – a (considerable) change for some
The pandemic has affected life for everyone to some extent, but for preschool children and children in primary and middle school (up till the age of 16 years) everyday life has continued much as before: their educational activities and leisure time have been little interrupted, and as such, their parents have continued to take children to pre/school and to out-of-home activities. What is most striking for many families is the absence of everyday support from grandparents such as child-minding, picking up children from school, et cetera. All families state that they have restricted their contacts with grandparents and older relatives, although most still meet but not as often as before and with more of a social distance.
Obviously, there are variations between families of how they experience life under the pandemic and how they have reacted. Some parents were very worried at the beginning of the pandemic and kept their children home from school and leisure activities for weeks or even months. Since the schools were not closed, and no on-line teaching was offered, there is a concern that these children risked falling behind in their studies. Some families experienced unemployment and worries for the future of the parent’s business due to the pandemic while for others work kept going as usual. Those parents who worked or studied from home could experience feeling low and discouraged without face-to-face meetings and chit-chat with colleagues, but at the same time they could find the work-family-leisure balance easier and less tiring as time spent commuting or socialising with friends or colleagues after work was saved. But many of the parents also stressed that life had become generally more boring and that they at times felt disheartened with the feeling of being locked up and that life was on hold.
However, those whose everyday lives and doings have been most affected by the pandemic are the grandparents, although the recommendations put upon them to self-isolate obviously also have affected their children and grandchildren. Some of the grandparents mention that having camper vans or holiday houses made life seem quite normal at times, but overall the grandparents’ social activities have significantly decreased due to the pandemic with no travelling, less socialising, and as a consequence a more tedious life.
Relationships and social distancing – negotiating the recommendations
Grandparents, parents and to some extent upper secondary school students, describe how they have restricted physical social contacts with friends while they still socialise, it happens less frequently and in other ways, such as walks outside rather than dinner parties at home. Parents mention that it can be hard to restrain children from socialising (‘too much’) with people outside the household. One reason can be that families take different approaches to the recommendations where some parents allow their children to spend time with friends like before the pandemic. Children do not always follow the parents’ rules, and point out that they attend school and leisure activities and spend time around other children on an everyday basis, so the reason for not hanging out with friends may be hard to justify. Children in secondary school talk about their social life with friends as having changed little, however the older adolescents in upper secondary school take the pandemic and their responsibly for social distancing more seriously as time goes on.
Not being able to meet friends and family and not being able to socialise like before is what has had the most negative affect on psychological wellbeing for parents and grandparents and the older adolescents who have experienced on-line teaching with studies at home. Without social contacts and activities, life has turned quite gloomy. Despite the recommendations, continued intergenerational socialising ‘in real life’ is explained as tending to one’s own and one’s relatives wellbeing. It is said that grandparents flout the recommendations and come to visit their children and grandchildren because it would not be worth living if they could not. Similarly, parents have described that they have continued to visit their parents because it would be unbearable not to see them, although not as often and not always with the children in tow.
Swedish Covid-19 policies are based on recommendations and families have interpreted and acted upon the recommendations in varying yet also similar ways. In stark contrast to how Sweden is sometimes represented as the most individualistic country on earth, our findings show that children, parents and grandparents of different social classes and type and place of abode, emphasise intergenerational bonds and the importance of close relationships, physical contacts and being cared for and to care for others. Fear and concerns raised about the pandemic generally pertain to how social distancing and isolation will affect psychological wellbeing of children, parents and grandparents, rather than on the infection itself.