119 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
N. Portillo et al. (eds.), Psychology and Covid-19 in the Americas,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38502-5_14
Chapter 14
An Exploratory Study on Family
and Economic Conficts in Mexican
University Students During the COVID-19
Pandemic.
Alba Luz Robles Mendoza, Jenny Elsa Junco Supa,
and Vania Montserrat Martínez Pérez
Introduction
As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the family, school, work and social
dynamics, and structures of the university student community were disrupted.
Nationally, social distancing was used to keep people away from crowded places
and restrict interaction among them, avoiding the spread of the virus (Sánchez & De
la Fuente, 2020). The Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala of the Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (FES Iztacala UNAM) closed its facilities and
adopted a remote learning modality for its classes. This changed the students’ inter-
action dynamics and family economic adjustments, affecting the circulation space
inside the home due to the number of people living together, the services available
for everyone, the time allocated to school, work, coexistence, and leisure tasks,
among other issues (Orellana & Orellana, 2020; Pinchak, 2020; Ruíz & Pastor,
2020). We understand the family as a space for interpersonal exchange based on the
socio-cultural conditions that generate it: social context, socio-urban environment,
cultural beliefs and customs, generational upbringing practices, social policies,
among others (Cambero, 2020; Linconao, 2020).
Unfortunately, family conficts and economic distress were frequent conse-
quences associated with the prolonged social confnement experienced during the
pandemic (Lepin Molina, 2020). Economic problems depressed earnings in fami-
lies, especially among those in the informal sector, and layoffs of workers in
This research is part of the PAPIIT UNAM IN301021 project
A. L. Robles Mendoza (*)
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
J. E. Junco Supa · V. M. Martínez Pérez
Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Santiago de Surco, Peru