The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) has launched its third Families in Australia (FIA) Survey to coincide with the release of a report on how families connected as COVID-19 restrictions began to ease at the end of last year.
The Institute said people could participate in its third FIA Survey until the end of June and it wanted to hear about their experience of family life, about their relationships and connections, as well as the care they gave and received.
AIFS said its report, Connection to family, friends and community, was based on data from the second FIA Survey, Towards COVID Normal, which ran from November to December.
“Despite Australians enjoying relaxed COVID restrictions compared to the rest of the world, many people are still facing barriers to connection in their everyday lives,” AIFS said.
“We found 30 per cent of respondents admitted they had ‘too little’ contact with their family, with a lack of free time, distance and COVID restrictions cited as the most common reasons,” it said.
“Grandparents were often impacted, with many describing a feeling of ongoing disconnection and isolation from their children and grandchildren.”
AIFS said limited technological skills formed a common barrier to older people connecting with family, although several older participants said adult children were too busy or unwilling to communicate.
It said almost 30 per cent of respondents who needed help with everyday tasks due to a disability or illness said they didn’t receive help from professional services but would like to.
“Besides the family they live with, 58 per cent of our survey respondents said they had family members living within 30 minutes of home,” the Institute said.
“However, with 30 per cent of Australians born overseas and over 400,000 moving interstate each year, long-distance family is a common thing.”
AIFS said almost half (49 per cent) of respondents felt the amount of contact they had with their families was about right; 30 per cent said it was ‘too little’; and only about one in 100 felt they had too much contact with family.
“Interestingly, people whose nearest family lived overseas were more satisfied with the amount of contact they had than those with family living interstate,” it said.
“This difference may reflect expectations about the amount of contact we have with families living overseas, as well as the impact of COVID restrictions on interstate travel,” AIFS said.
The AIF’s third FIA survey can be accessed at this PS News link.
