Cohesión familiar y covid-19: los efectos de la pandemia sobre las relaciones familiares entre los jóvenes universitarios madrileños y sus padres

Abstract

The objective of this research, we present here in a summarized form, is none other than to verify what consequences the COVID-19 and forced confinement is having on family cohesion. Our observation units are young university students from Madrid, who live with some of their relatives. We have chosen the online survey as a technique for collecting data, taking into account the difficulties of the moment and the need to get results as quickly as possible. In the end, 305 university students took part in our study. The results are contradictory and ambivalent: one half of the respondents stated that no changes had taken place, and the other half was divided between those who spoke of positive changes and those who spoke of negative changes. We can talk about four different groups or categories of people: intense, strengthened, unchanged and conflictive relationships. We conclude the study by stressing the need to carry out qualitative studies in the future in order to deepen and qualify the results achieved in the present research, as well as to carry out longitudinal studies, in order to take into account whether the changes produced by the COVID-19 on family cohesion are interpretable as temporary or permanent.