ABSTRACT
Inclusive digital financial services should welcome older populations and make them beneficiaries of the digital and financial revolution. To understand older adults' experience of using digital financial tools, we conducted an online survey of 268 older internet users aged 60 or above from urban areas of 14 Chinese provinces after China's nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in 2021. Our results revealed that older internet surfers were active in digital financial activities and engaged most with activities that were highly compatible with their lifestyles. Active users significantly differed from inactive users in sociodemographics, confirming that a digital divide related to social stratification exists among older internet users. Digital finance active users were also distinguished from inactive users' attitudes and perceptions toward digital finance. Logistic regression results indicated that perceived usefulness, access to proper devices for digital finance, risk perceptions, and perceived exclusion if not using technology were associated with their adoption of these advanced tools. Older adults reported the perceived inconvenience of in-person financial services during the lockdown. They also expressed a willingness to participate in relevant training if provided. The findings of this study could help aging-related practitioners to understand older adults' engagement in digital finance and guide policy and project design in the area of financial inclusion of the aging population.
ABSTRACT
In this article, the effects of social isolation which can lead to increasing feelings of loneliness and abandonment for some are examined. The article analyses findings which emerged from a qualitative study carried out with older people in three distinct areas in Scotland (city, rural and urban) who were shielding during Covid-19. It focuses on the ways in which social isolation affected them and the extent to which information and communication technology (ICT) and telecare technologies served to mitigate key aspects. The key themes which emerged from the research included loneliness as 'multi-layered', with these layers including 'disconnections between loneliness and social isolation';'well-being reversals';'neighbours as strangers';'disjointed communities and co-production' and 'service abandonment'. Additional themes which emerged focused on 'ICT rebounds and evolvement' and 'hope, buoyancy and reciprocity'. These layers and themes can be seen to have longer term significance with regard to the implications for social work and social care planning as we move forward. They also emphasise the need for greater cohesiveness between health, telecare and social care services.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis has had an unprecedented impact on Spanish society regarding health and social issues. The purpose of this study is to analyse the potential relationship that may exist between social and personal factors and the levels of psychological distress experienced by the Spanish population during lockdown. A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted using an ad hoc online questionnaire consisting of forty-three questions. The survey was administered to a sample of 3,436 people that were living in Spain during the second extension of the State of Alarm. A linear mixed model with random intersection has been used. Our findings demonstrate the intersectional vulnerability of young women and the impact different factors such as a COVID-19 diagnosis, experiencing symptoms compatible with COVID, an existing disability, a previous illness or solitary confinement may have on psychological distress levels. Conversely, higher resilience levels have shown a correlation with lower psychological distress levels.
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the reflections of a cohort of Australian children who lived through the 2020–21 COVID‐19 pandemic and experienced being in 'lockdown';a state of largely being confined to the home for long periods daily. We report how children reflect on their experiences and illustrate how reflections draw on similar topics focused on localised child concerns regarding health, education, family, digital engagement, mealtimes and food. Further, we argue for the importance of including children's own voices of lived experience in reports regarding life during the pandemic since these perspectives may differ from those reported by adults on children's behalf.
ABSTRACT
The rapid global spread of COVID-19 has put increased pressure on health and social service providers, including social workers who continued front line practice throughout the pandemic, engaging with some of the most vulnerable in society often experiencing multiple adversities alongside domestic violence and abuse (DVA). Movement restrictions and stay-at-home orders introduced to slow the spread of the virus, paradoxically leave these families at even greater risk from those within the home. Utilising a survey methodology combining both open- and closed-ended questions, this study captured a picture of social work practice in Ireland with families experiencing DVA during the early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings highlight both the changes and challenges in work practices and procedures that limit social work assessment and quality contact with families, changes to the help-seeking behaviours from victims/survivors, as well as emerging innovative practice responses with enhanced use of technology. Implications for practice include an increased awareness of the risk and prevalence of DVA accelerated by the pandemic. Conclusions assert that social work assessment and intervention with families experiencing DVA must remain adaptive to the changing COVID-19 context and continue to develop innovative practice approaches.
ABSTRACT
The article presents the results of a qualitative study investigating the experiences of a sample of Italian adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Data were analysed in the light of the two social representations (adolescents as criminals and as victims) that permeated the Italian public debate throughout the outbreak. The findings showed the ability of boys and girls in dealing with the relationships altered by the pandemic constraints and in adapting to different regulations. This demonstrated their competence as social actors, neither criminals nor victims, who were also able to cope with the coronavirus risk in safeguarding their significant others.
ABSTRACT
This paper documents co‐participatory research with children in six primary schools in Ireland during the COVID‐19 pandemic. It explores the use of what we term digital dialogues with diverse groups of children aged 9–10 years as members of Child Research Advisory Groups. The paper conceptualises the digital dialogues as sites of resistance as well as constraint, empowering children to articulate their voices in relation to schooling and the pandemic, whilst mediated by power dynamics—between adults and children, and between children, in the articulation of those voices.
ABSTRACT
By June 2021, children and young people had experienced two periods of lockdown and home learning in Northern Ireland. The detrimental impact of these periods of indefinite confinement is wider reaching than reported educational stagnation, with the fundamental rights of childhood: play;rest;and leisure;all adversely implicated. Autistic children's experiences of Covid‐19 have been largely absent from current crisis and recovery discourse. This is the first published study to directly and specifically involve autistic children both as research advisors and as research participants in a rights‐based participatory study relating to the pandemic. Drawing on concepts of ableist childism and epistemic injustice, this article presents, through Photovoice, the emotional, social and educational experiences of post‐ primary aged autistic young people in Northern Ireland during the first 2020 lockdown of the Covid‐19 pandemic. The project was grounded in a child rights‐based approach and was guided by a group of four autistic young advisors aged 11–15. The paper concludes by arguing that government responses to the pandemic, as experienced by autistic young people, act as forms of oppression that prioritises and further embeds normative non‐autistic structures and responses under the guise of public health necessity.