Journal of Happiness and Health (Jan 2023)
Mothers’ wellbeing during COVID-19 in Singapore: An interpretative phenomenological analysis
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many families around the world and particularly so among parents and their children whose well-being have been tremendously affected. Emergent research suggests that mothers tend to experience greater level of distress and struggle more in trying to manage their well-being and that of their children. However, there has been less investigation on mothers’ personal experiences during the pandemic period and particularly so a lack of research in terms of interviewing mothers in Singapore. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth understanding of the lived experience of working mothers and their well-being—how their well-being might influence and have a greater impact on their school-going children during the COVID-19 pandemic period in Singapore. Five working mothers of school-going children between aged 8 to 12 years were recruited and participated in semi-structured interviews. The verbatim transcripts of the interviews were analysed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The analysis revealed three superordinate themes: 1) The challenge of working from home, 2) Mother’s perspectives on self-care, 3) Distinctive connections between mother and children. The overall findings revealed the authentic lived experiences of working mothers—with a key focus on their first pandemic lockdown experience in Singapore—the journey they have gone through while managing both their children and work from home. This study highlighted the importance of considering mothers’ well-being that might affect their children through the way they approached them. Essentially, the need to raise awareness of mothers’ well-being in times of crisis is critical and should be considered when designing interventions to support mothers during emergency situations, and to have future studies to take this study further.
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