How The Covid-19 pandemic changed the quality of Iranian families’ interaction? A Grounded Theory Approach

 Covid-19 outbreak changed human being interactions in all of the world, and family as smallest social unit of society had experiences in new situation. Accordingly, the present study aimed to explore the How the Covid-19 pandemic changed the quality of Iranian families’ interaction?

This study examined the quality of family interactions during the COVID-19 epidemic using a qualitative grounded theory approach. The research population was families living in Tehran. The participants were 25 persons including 7 couples and 11 young adults who were selected using purposive sampling in 2021 in Tehran. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the participants. The collected data were analyzed based on Strauss and Corbin’s approach.

The results revealed that COVID-19 affected 5 Axial coding including; “Family interaction challenges”, “Changes in the quality of family interactions”, “Concerns about the occurrence of physical and mental problems for family members”, “the impact of changing working hours” and “economic problems on family interactions”, and the consequences of reconstructing family interactions leading to weak family ties. The COVID-19 pandemic also had consequences such as economic problems, exacerbation of external stresses such as unemployment, disregard for family relationships, and exacerbation of work-family conflict.

This study also showed that families rebuild family interactions by turning challenges into opportunities, redefining communication boundaries, rebuilding family interactions, and redefining family roles and functions.