Mens & Maatschappij - Volume 96, Issue 3, 2021

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on happiness in The Netherlands

In the media we read mainly about negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our subjective wellbeing, such as increased depression, anxiety and loneliness. There is less attention for possible positive effects and for this reason it is worth examining how the life-satisfaction of the Dutch population has developed during the pandemic. In the short run, this will help policy makers to balance loss of happiness against loss of lives and in the long run it will help to examine which policies have resulted in the lowest loss of happy life years. In this article, we describe observed effects on happiness in the Netherlands during the pandemic (until spring 2021) using three empirical approaches: 1) trend in subsequent survey studies, 2) analysis of a panel study, and 3) analysis of a dairy study in which mood during daily activities was measured. Average life-satisfaction declined by about 4% of which 3% between summer 2020 and spring 2021. Whereas in the early days of the pandemic, the Dutch population only reported a minor loss of happiness, the decline has become substantial at the end of the road.

The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relative division of care tasks between mothers and fathers: a longitudinal perspective

For many parents, the combination of work and care was already demanding and unevenly distributed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has clearly influenced the relative division of care tasks, but how and why remains unclear. We use longitudinal panel data from the LISS panel, collected in April, June and November 2020, to analyze the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relative distribution of care by mothers and fathers in the Netherlands. A complex picture emerges from these longitudinal analyses, and several theoretical perspectives appear to be relevant. We conclude that time availability mainly has an effect at the beginning of the pandemic, while relative resources play a role the longer the pandemic endures.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on subjective well-being of (international) higher education students in the Netherlands

In this paper we investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on subjective well-being of higher education students in the Netherlands. More specifically, we compare international students and Dutch students, based on the Dutch data of the COVID-19 International Student Well-Being Study, a cross-sectional survey conducted between May-July 2020 among higher education students across the Netherlands (N = 10.491). Based on the sociological literature on the relationship between social capital and subjective well-being, we investigate in particular whether changes in social contact during the first lockdown can explain differences in subjective well-being between international and Dutch students. Our results suggest that although international students report lower levels of subjective well-being compared to Dutch students, these differences cannot be directly explained by (changes) in social contact during the lockdown.

The experiences of refugee youth with school closure due to COVID-19: A qualitative study on increasing educational inequality of young people from Syria in Rotterdam

This paper focusses on the experiences of Syrian refugee youth in Rotterdam with the first school closure (spring 2020), due to COVID-19 policy measures. Based on repeated qualitative interviews with 19 boys and girls – before, during and after the school closure – we examine how Syrian refugee youth have experienced the school closure, and how this influence their educational position by using the four central tasks of education of Van de Werfhorst and Mijs (2010). Syrian refugee youth in our study emphasize that online education is more difficult to understand and stress they miss their friends at school. Moreover, their circumstances at home are not ideal for online learning, and therefore reaching the appropriate level of education becomes harder. This paper highlights the importance of the social aspect of education. Whereas going to school normally also stimulate friendships and their socialization in Dutch society, the school closure makes this more challenging. Especially for refugee youth school has extra relevance for reasons of e.g. mental health, resiliency, and socialization. Through our case studies, we argue that the school closure contributes to an accumulation of risks and inequalities. We conclude that the school closure will likely increase educational inequality for young people with a refugee background and makes their educational position more vulnerable.

Changes in informal care provision during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 in the Netherlands

This study investigates to what extent the intensity of informal care provision has changed during the first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 in the Netherlands, whether these changes differed by the living situation of the care recipient, and whether these changes were associated with changes in indicators for ‘being able to’, ‘have to’ and ‘want to’ provide care (determinants of the Informal Care Model). We collected data in July 2020 among informal caregivers aged 78 and younger who indicated to provide care in March 2020 in the LISS-panel (N = 1,270 care situation of 1,014 caregivers). We found that, on average, informal care provision was reduced during the lockdown; caregivers of care recipients living in care institutions were the most likely to reduce or stop caregiving, and caregivers who helped someone in their own household were most likely to have increased their intensity. Feeling less restricted by the corona measures reduced the likelihood to stop or lower care provision and increased the likelihood of increasing care; being confronted with a reduction of formal care for the care recipient was related to a higher likelihood of increasing care; and stronger concerns about the care recipient increased the likelihood of intensifying care and prevented from stopping or reducing care. We conclude that the COVID-19 measures significantly impacted the amount of informal care provision and that the Informal Care Model provides a useful basis for explaining changes in informal care intensity.

Citizens’ initiatives in times of crisis: An investigation into the factors that influence the durability of citizens’ initiatives

In the Netherlands, citizens’ initiatives have received a lot of praise and are increasingly made responsible for providing public services. If they are to fulfil this role, they must be able to weather a crisis, as during a crisis public services should remain reliable. Literature on the durability of citizens’ initiatives suggests that large initiatives, with a close-knit core group and strong government support are the most durable. However, our research indicates that this was not the case during the COVID-19 crisis. Flexibility and freedom to function independently from the municipal government were found to be more decisive for durability. This suggests that despite public value of citizens’ initiatives, they cannot be expected to take much responsibility for durable public service provision.