A Typology of Family Functioning at The Beginning of The COVID-19 Pandemic

Family functioning affects the physical and psychological health of individuals in the family. The more effortlessly a family performs its various functions, the better the mental health of its members. The purpose of this research is to analyze family issues and explore the elements that influence family functioning following the implementation of the Large Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) policy. The research was conducted using an online survey method via Google form application. Data were collected from 18 provinces, with West Java having the highest percentage (54.8%), followed by DKI Jakarta (12.3%), Riau (7.1%), East Java (6.5%), and South Sumatra (6.0%). Data were processed using SPSS version 20, followed by descriptive and regression analysis. Based on the dimensions of family functioning, the results showed that more than 80 percent of the aspects of communication and affective responsiveness were in the low category. In comparison, more than 90 percent of responders rate their role and behavioral control as high. According to the functioning typology, as many as 64% of families have less functioning conditions, while 36% of families are still functioning well. According to the findings, the COVID-19 epidemic has also caused additional challenges for families, especially children (63.5%) and economic problems (49.5%). These findings are intended to provide useful information to the government and academia in strengthening family resilience during times of crisis.


Introduction
After a month since the two cases of COVID-19 were discovered, the government launched a Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) policy.On March 31, 2020, President Jokowi held a press conference to declare the policy he had decided on to respond to COVID-19 as a worldwide epidemic.The PSBB policy is defined in Government Regulation (PP) Number 21 of 2020 regarding PSBB in the scope of the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19.President Jokowi adopted this policy in response to a health emergency in Indonesia.The PSBB in question is restricting some activities of residents in a region suspected of being infected with Corona Virus Disease 2019  and preventing its spread to neighboring areas (Ristyawati, 2020).
On April 10, 2020, DKI Jakarta became the first province to implement PSBB in its territory.Several public amenities were closed at the time.Based on Governor Regulation (Pergub) No. 33 of 2020 concerning Implementation of PSBB, the 11 sectors are health, food, energy, communication and information technology, finance, logistics, hospitality, construction, public and industry which are designated as national vital objects, and certain objects, as well as daily needs .In accordance with the provisions of the Ministry of Health, the implementation of the PSBB is valid for 14 days and can be extended or terminated.The implementation of the first PSBB ended on April 23, 2020.The governor of DKI Jakarta, who was serving at that time, Anies Baswedan then extended the implementation of the PSBB twice, namely on April 24-May 22 2020 and May 24-June 4 2020 (CNN Indonesia, 2020).
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has lasted over two years, has had a wideranging impact on family life and society as a whole.Data reveal that violent conduct against children and women in Indonesia went up during the COVID-19 outbreak.According to the Online Information System for the Protection of Women and Children (SIMFONI PPA) released by the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (Kementerian PPPA), there were 3,087 cases of violence against children in Indonesia between January 1 and June 19, 2020, including 852 cases of physical violence, 768 cases of psychological violence, and 1,848 cases of sexual violence (Kementerian PPPA, 2020).The primary offenders of both physical and psychological violence suffered by children and women occur in the immediate environment, particularly the household.Furthermore, changes in communication patterns and social dynamics in internet use, as well as disruptions in access to health services and special protection for children during the pandemic, have made children more vulnerable to sexual exploitation both online and offline.
National Commission on Women filed 338,496 reports of gender-based violence (KBG) against women in 2021.This figure has more than doubled since the 2020 report, which tallied 226,062 cases.Throughout 2021, National Commission on Women has received reports of 3,838 KBG cases.Following that, 7,029 cases were reported to service institutions, while 327,639 cases were reported to Religious Courts (Badilag) (National Commission on Women, 2022).Meanwhile, the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection said that in 2021, the following percentage of women victims of abuse were reported per category of violence: 39 percent of women reported physical assault, 30 percent reported psychological violence, 12 percent reported sexual violence, 10 percent reported neglect, and 2 percent reported trafficking in persons (Pertana, 2022).Furthermore, there were reports of children experiencing violence, with the majority facing sexual assault (45 percent), psychological violence (19 percent), physical violence (18 percent), and child neglect (5 percent) (National Commission on Women, 2022).
On top of that, the divorce rate has risen as well.The number of divorce cases in the country reached 447,743 in 2021, up 53.50 percent from 291,677 in 2020.According to the survey, more wives petition for divorce than husbands.A total of 337,343 divorces, or 75.34 percent, were the result of contested divorces, which were cases in which the wife filed a lawsuit that was resolved by the Court.Meanwhile, talak divorces accounted for 110,440 cases, or 24.66 percent of all divorces, referring to cases in which the husband filed a petition that was granted by the Court.
West Java had the most divorce cases in 2021, with 98,088 cases, followed by East Java and Central Java, with 88,235 and 75,509 cases, respectively.Disputes and constant fights are the leading causes of divorce in 2021, accounting for 279,205 cases.Other divorces are prompted by economic factors, while others are motivated by domestic abuse or polygamy.
Furloughs and job losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 affected women employees in a variety of industries, including retail, travel, childcare, and education.Women account for up to 39% of global employment, yet 54 percent of these women have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic (Madgavkar et al., 2020).Another notable change brought about by COVID-19 is the movement of many employees from working in offices to working from home.According to a recent survey (Brynjolfsson et al., 2020), more than half of US respondents worked from home in April 2020.Furthermore, children are attending online school during the epidemic, which means that millions of working parents must also become parents, and educate their children at home.Women, on average, perform more childcare activities than men therefore online schools place a bigger strain on women.
The change from office-based to home-based work, which blurred the lines between work and family, was another issue during the COVID-19 pandemic.As a result, it becomes difficult to fulfill tasks and resolve the greater work-family conflict.Along with increased obligations on childcare and housework, working from home also means longer workdays, which can lead to conflict.Although all family members are impacted by these factors, women often handle the majority of household and childcare duties and are more likely to experience work-family conflict (Milliken et al., 2020).
Parents and adolescents with a high level of intolerance for uncertainty tend to feel greater pressure in dealing with a pandemic.In turn, parents' anxiety can affect their parenting behavior.According to research by Janssen, et al. (2020), parents and adolescents are bothered by a lack of social contact with friends, feeling irritated with family members, and worrying about one another's health.This happened as a logical consequence of the lockdown and the implementation of social distancing (PSBB).In contrast to parents, it can be claimed that children and adolescents get bored easily.The coronavirus generally causes parents anxiety, although adolescents are less bothered by the illness.Online communication with family or friends can assist parents and teenagers in dealing with the issue when they are socially isolated.Additionally, watching television shows is also referred to as an entertaining activity for parents and adolescents.Families can benefit from this circumstance by doing activities like cooking, dining, watching movies, speaking, or listening to music together.
Many research have been conducted so far to determine the influence of the COVID-19 outbreak on family life.However, there was limited research on family function at the beginning of the PSBB's implementation, particularly on the typology of family functioning.Therefore, evaluating family functioning can be considered crucial.Family functioning will ensure that the family's functions are carried out in daily life.Families have changed so much throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that it is difficult to determine which are functioning properly and which are not.Even if the situation has stabilized, family life has not reverted to its previous state.
This research focuses on areas of family functioning that have not been well researched.Based on this context, the research's objectives are to: 1) define the characteristics of respondents; 2) examine family issues that surfaced at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; 3) examine factors that affect family functioning; and 4) examine the typology of family functioning following the implementation of the PSBB policy.

Participants
The participants in this study came from 18 provinces, with West Java province receiving the highest (54.8%), followed by DKI Jakarta (12.3%),Riau (7.1%),East Java (6.5%), and South Sumatra (6.0%).The remainder are distributed throughout 13 different Indonesian provinces.The questionnaire was filled out by 367 participants, with men by 64.3 percent (236 people) and women by 35.7 percent (131 people).The ages of respondents ranged from 23 to 65 years, and the marital duration spanned from 0 to 37 years.
Data collection that started from making instruments and distributing questionnaires, to data processing, carried out in May-September 2020.The Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) policy had just been put into place in Indonesia at the time this data was collected.This research employs survey methodologies along with a quantitative approach.Online surveys are distributed using the Google Form.

Measurement
The McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD) is the measurement instrument in use.According to the perceptions of family members, this measurement instrument was created to evaluate the McMaster Model's dimensions (Epstein et al., 1983).This instrument consists of subscales that assess six dimensions of the McMaster Model and one dimension of general functioning that assesses overall family functioning.The seven dimensions include the dimensions of problem solving, communication, roles, affective responsiveness, affective engagement, behavioral control and general functioning.
The theory of family functioning was put forward by Skinner in 1980 which emphasized the interaction between individuals (family members) and the entire family.Skinner perceives family background characteristics such as family members' values and rules as a dynamic operating system (Yusnita, 2021).In this research, the family functioning instrument contains 46 statement items with the following details: problem solving dimensions (3 items), communication (10 items), roles (7 items), affective responsiveness (10 items), affective engagement (5 items), behavioral control (7 items), and general function (4 items).The family functioning questionnaire takes about 15-20 minutes to complete and is intended to be filled out by married family members.Additionally, respondents were asked questions on their own and their families' characteristics, including education, occupation, marital status, the number of dependent children, and family income (husband and wife).

Analysis
Respondents were asked to report/assess any item that they believed represented their family by selecting one of three alternative answers: Yes, Same, or Different.The data was then processed using the SPSS application version 20, which was followed by descriptive analysis and linear regression.Furthermore, the data is also processed to generate family functioning typologies.A higher score indicates stronger family functioning.The family function variable is then turned into a ratio scale, and each answer is added up to produce a composite score, which becomes an index score with a value of 0-100.Following that, the index scores are separated into two typologies based on a cut-off point of 50.The first category, with an index score of 50, is the poorly functioning families.The second category, with an Index score of 50, is the wellfunctioning family.

Findings Respondent Characteristics
According to age, the majority of respondents (57.8 percent) were adults, while the remainder (42.2 percent) were in their early adulthood.Marriages range in length from less than ten years to more than thirty years.The vast majority of those polled have been married for more than ten years.Almost half of the respondents had an S1 education (48.1% of male respondents and 47.5% of female respondents), and their income ranges from IDR 1,000,000 to > IDR 10,000,000.More than half (62.9%) have fewer than three children and live alone (71.1%).Table 1

Family Issues in the Early Stages of The COVID-19 Pandemic
On the problem-solving dimension questionnaire, the author asked respondents to fill in the blank with the statement, "New issues that emerged during this COVID-19 pandemic (options may be more than one)".Following that, the incoming answers are grouped into six categories.The results are reported in Table 2 illustrates that the most pressing issues for both male and female respondents at the outset of the pandemic were children's and economic issues.It's astonishing given that at the time, children were attending school online for the first time.Simultaneously, PSBB policies compel parents to work from home or from home (WFH).Because the responsibilities of the father and mother become difficult to discern, it generates an irregularity and an uncomfortable sense in the home.In epidemic times, the father who is usually out of the house working is "forced" to be at home and does not want to engage in childcare.
In addition to children's issues, economic issues were a major concern for many Indonesian families during the pandemic.Employment termination (PHK) occurs in many firms, causing millions of workers to lose their jobs in a short period of time.Of course, this has a severe influence on the family economy and husband-wife relationships within the household.

Family Functioning Factors
According to test results, there was a 0.127 determination coefficient for elements influencing family functioning throughout the pandemic.The results show that the variables examined in the model can only explain 12.7 percent of the family characteristic factors that affect family functioning, with the remaining 87.3 percent being influenced by additional variables that are not necessarily part of this research.At the outset of the COVID-19 epidemic, the duration of marriage is the main factor influencing the way families operate.The family's income and the wife's education are also two important elements that determine how effectively the family functions.The respondent's duration of marriage is the main factor negatively affecting the functioning of the family (= -0.423).This implies that every additional year of marriage will result in a 0.423 index-point decline in the family funtioning score during the pandemic.The funtioning of the family is likewise negatively impacted by family income (= -2.686).It can be said that any increase in family income by one level will lower the family function scores during the pandemic by 2,686 index scores.In addition, the length of the wife's education (β= -0.164) also has a negative impact on family fertility.This means that every one-year in a wife's education will lower the family fertility score during the pandemic by 0.164 points.(Tabel 3).Most likely, the highly educated wives have a fixed job in the office.As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads and requires all employees to work at home, the wife's burden increases.The wife is not only in charge of the office but also of childcare and household duties.

Family Functioning Typology
The McMaster Model's six elements for family functioning include problemsolving, communication, roles, affective response, emotional engagement, behavior management, and general functioning.Additionally, the research categorizes the typology of family function into two groups: well-functioning families and poorlyfunctioning families.Poorly functioning families have a higher percentage (64%) than well-functioning families, as seen in Diagram 1. (36 %).The results imply that family resilience in Indonesia is still low.Many families struggled to function normally when PSBB was implemented.
The family functioning component shows that the communication and emotional responsiveness features are primarily in the lower category (greater than 80%).(Tabel 4).This demonstrates how the roles within the family altered when the COVID-19 outbreak struck Indonesia and many households were not prepared to handle it.Domestic conflict is inevitable.On the communication dimension, it was revealed that respondents became more likely to argue to their spouses (59.1%) and their children (56.7%), were more susceptible to being offended by their spouse (51.8%), and were more often pronouncing harsh words to the spouse (81.2%).Meanwhile, on the dimension of emotional sensitivity, they were seen to complain more often (40.6%) and become less patient (12.3%).Additionally, research has shown that some couples have been the perpetrators or victims of domestic violence, and some have even acknowledged to assaulting their kids.Although there were just a few domestic violence-related findings in this , the issue must not be dismissed.The data demonstrates that the implementation of the PSBB has a significant impact on family functioning.

Family Functioning Typology Poorly Functioning Family
Well Functioning Family couples sharing a role at home in completing domestic chores (50.7%) during the implementation of the PSBB.Aside from the good findings, 30.8 percent of respondents thought that domestic responsibilities were getting increasingly burdensome, and 39.5 percent stated that the burden was escalating.
Respondents become more concerned about taking care of themselves and their family members on the behavioral control dimension.For instance, the majority of respondents reported increasing their hand-washing with soap (96.7%), wearing masks when leaving the house (98.1%), reminding family members to practice good hygiene (97.0%), exercising more (42.8%),and restricting travel outside the home (95.1%) since the COVID-19 pandemic spread.

Discussion
According to the findings of this research, the most common challenges encountered by most respondents are economic and child-related.The issue stems from the public's perception of the COVID-19 pandemic.This finding, as proposed by Spinelli et al. (2020), is that the COVID-19 Pandemic puts them under a lot of quarantine stress.Parents have a tendency to view unpleasant conditions as a result of pandemics, which are highly related to parental stress and children's psychological difficulties, and which indirectly affect children's behavior and emotions.Spinelli et al. (2020) also claimed that parents are finding it more difficult to care for the educational development of their kids since they lack space and time for themselves, their partners, and the activities they used to conduct prior to the territorial restriction (lockdown).All of this adds to people's stress levels.Due to their tendency for becoming overly reactive, anxious, and irritable, parents under quarantine stress are believed to be less able to enjoy and appreciate their connections with their children.The well-being of children is substantially impacted.
Long-term measures to combat COVID-19 have led to increased risk factors associated with domestic violence such as unemployment stress, reduced incomes, limited resources, and social support.The rise in homicides related to domestic violence is also another consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic (Campbell, 2020).Undeniably, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a varied impact on social change in society.One is characterized by changes in parenting behavior such as warmth and criticism expressed by parents to their children.The results of Epkins (2016) research show that parental warmth is considered as one of the dimensions of parenting behavior that includes acceptance, support, and positive involvement towards the child.
Stressed parents may struggle to grasp their child's needs and will behave in a less compassionate manner (Abidin, 1992;Scaramella et al., 2008).Stress is also frequently connected with unpleasant behavior and difficulties expressing limitations and discipline (Spinelli et al., 2020), thus children may feel less understood by their parents and may react in a more negative and violent manner.Pinquart (2017).The pandemic's heightened stress varies from acute stress related to job loss to more chronic and long-lasting stress (Brock & Laifer, 2020).
Parents' criticism during the COVID-19 pandemic was defined by Hickey (2020) as negative expressions, disapproval, or dissatisfaction with children.An important aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic situation is uncertainty.Previous research has proven that uncertainty is one of the main determinants of the level of stress experienced (Buhr & Dugas, 2006;Zlomke & Young, 2009;Meeten, et al., 2012).The degree to which each individual can cope with uncertainty varies tremendously.Some people are very good at handling uncertainty, while others struggle with it and strive to avoid it (Dugas et al., 1998;Freeston et al., 1994;Rosen & Knauper, 2009).Teenagers (both before and during the pandemic) generally believe that their mothers are harsher than their fathers.According to Lamb and Lewis (2013), this may be related to the differences in parental duties between mothers and fathers, as well as the establishment of norms and boundaries.
Everyone struggles to fulfill their responsibilities and resolve domestic disputes when the lines between work and family are blurred.Working from home puts more expectations on childcare and household duties, as well as longer working hours, and is frequently the root of work-family conflict.Although these factors can have an impact on everyone, women are more likely to handle the bulk of household and childcare duties and report more work-family conflict than men (Milliken et al., 2020).According to a recent research, women are three to four times more likely than men to cut back on their working hours or quit their jobs in order to care for their children, with a consequent increase in the gender wage gap of 20 to 50 percent expected for the future (Collins, et al., 2020).This opinion is supported by the research's findings, which showed that 30.8 percent of respondents believed domestic duties were getting harder to complete and 39.5 percent acknowledged that the workload had increased.
Despite the heightened stress and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the limited movement space has had a good impact on family connections.This research discovered that every family member made a concerted effort to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic's prolonged duration.For instance, respondents reported being more involved in childcare (54.0 percent), more assertive in supervising children in carrying out their obligations (60.8 percent), and shared roles with their partners at home in completing household work (50.7 percent) during the implementation of the PSBB.
These findings support the opinion of Bavel, et al. (2020) that families can increase social connectedness, no one feels alone at home, and they also carry out social interactions online with other people outside the home.The research results of Ahmed, et al. (2020) shows that there is an increase in the social dimension of concern due to the pandemic which affects family relationships.According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic has positive aspects to family relationships in general, and has a significant impact of 50 percent on strengthening relationships between family members.The findings also show that family members can build positive relationships during periods of social isolation (lockdown), and even strengthen relationships through mutual cooperation in household chores and doing hobbies with family members.
In terms of family function, Tam et al. (2021) discovered that family functioning is highly related to intergenerational communication and satisfaction with social support during a pandemic.Functional families have more adaptable intergenerational communication, whereas dysfunctional families have negative communication patterns.It was also discovered that communicating with respect or obligation has no relation to family functioning.This shows that treating more senior family members with respect has minimal influence on family cohesion and flexibility.Respondents with a balanced level of family connection and flexibility are better equipped to cope with the psychological burden of the pandemic.Tam et al. (2021) discovered that contentment with social support is associated with family functioning favorably.Higher levels of satisfaction with social support are associated with greater family flexibility and a more balanced family system.López's research, et al. (2021) confirmed that good family functioning is associated with reduced emotional distress such as anxiety and depression.

Conclusion
According to their characteristics, more than half of the respondents were middle adults (57.8%) and the rest were early adults (42.2%).Marital duration varies from under 10 years to more than 30 years.Most respondents had been married for more than 10 years.Almost half of the respondents had a bachelor's degree (48.1% of male respondents and 47.5% of female respondents) and respondents' income ranged from <Rp. 1,000,000 ->10,000,000.More than half of the respondents had fewer than 3 children (62.9%) and lived in their own home (71.1%).
At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, children and the economy setback were the two major issues that families had to deal with.Online schools make it difficult for parents to divide their time between work, household and children's learning activities.In addition, termination of employment (PHK) occurred in many companies, resulting in a negative impact on the family economy.
At the start of PSBB implementation, there were more families that were not functioning well than families that were.Sixty-four percent of families (235 people) function poorly, while 36 percent function well (132 people).When the COVID-19 outbreak hit Indonesia, many households were unprepared, therefore family functions shifted.

Recommendation
These findings can be used by family science scholars to further investigate the function of the family in crisis resolution.The findings of this research can be used too by communication scientists to develop appropriate strategies to communicate within families during a crisis without introducing additional tensions.Furthermore, the findings of this research can be used by relevant ministries to develop family-friendly policies.

Table 1 .
contains further information.Characteristics of the respondents

Table 1 .
Characteristics of the respondents (continue)

Table 2 below . Table 2 .
Respondents' new issues at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic

Table 3 .
Regression coefficient to analyze the effect of respondent characteristics on family functioning (n=367) Note: ** significant at p ≤0.01; *significant at p ≤0.05

Table 4 .
Categories of family functioning dimensions