How to Promote Family Time
Content Page
2.2 Social Media Campaign
2.3 Prototyping and evaluation of Awareness Campaign
Chapter 3: ‘Family
First’ Carnival
3.1
Empathy Game
3.2
Puzzle Game
3.3
Prototyping and evaluation of ‘Family First’ Carnival
4.1 Empathy Builder
4.2 Family Timetable
4.3 Diary Competition
Appendix. C : Survey on
effectiveness of Awareness Campaign
Appendix.
D : Responses to survey on effectivenss of Awareness Campaign
Appendix.
E : Survey on effectiveness of ‘Family First’ Carnival
Appendix.
F : Responses to survey on effectiveness of ‘Family First’ Carnival
Appendix.
G : Survey on effectiveness of FAMtastic APP
Appendix.
H : Responses to survey on effectiveness of FAMtastic APP
Chapter 1: Introduction
Close to half of families in
Singapore do not spend sufficient family time, confirmed by a 2014 Families for Life Council
survey (Families for Life, 2014). Among Singaporean
families, we targeted those with teenagers aged 12-18. This is because they are
most likely to experience the negative consequences of lack of family time as
teenagers distance themselves from family (Papini, Roggman & Anderson,
1991; Sulloway, 1996).
1.1 Negative consequences of lack of family time
We emailed 10 families to enquire if they were
satisfied with their family time. Two focus group discussions were conducted
with the 5 families who indicated the lack of family time to find out its negative
consequences (focus group discussion transcripts are in Appendices A and B). We
separated parents and teenagers, so that they could be more forthcoming (Jensen, Arnett, Feldman & Cauffman, 2004).
The negative
consequences of lack of family time include:
1) Harm on emotional
well-being
Teenagers with lack of family time experience negative
emotions (Phares, 1992). 4 out of 5 teenagers in
our discussion added that lack of familial interaction has led to problems such
as stress from studies unaddressed. This led to feelings of isolation, anger or
depression.
2) Behavioural problems
A
study published in the International Journal of Humanity and Social Sciences, revealed
lack of family time as the
main cause of misbehaviour among Singaporean children, which includes assaulting
their peers or disobeying people of authority (Hameed-ur-Rehman &
Sadruddin, 2012).
3) Rift in familial ties
Lack of family time breeds
lack of understanding, which leads to conflicts (Loeber et al, 2000; Gopnik,
2012). All participants reflected they had experienced familial conflicts due
to lack of family time, deteriorating familial ties.
1.2
Root causes of lack of family time:
To minimise
the negative consequences of lack of family time, we identified its root causes
as:
1) Little common time
In our discussion above,
participants revealed that some family members’ off-peak periods conflict with
others’ peak period (e.g. work and school-related activities (Families for Life,
2014)), resulting in the lack of common free time for family activities.
2) Family is not the priority
Teenagers prioritise friendships
(Lin, Chiang & Jiang, 2013) while parents prioritise their careers (Choo,
2012; Shiao, 2014). As a result, family time is deprived.
3) Difficulty in empathising
with each other
Parents and teenagers’
perspectives are not aligned, leading to conflicts (Robin & Foster, 2002).
They then avoid sharing feelings and thoughts, undermining family time (Wong,
2015).
1.3 Aim of our project
Our project aims to address
the root causes of lack of family time by emphasising its importance, and innovating
new ways to facilitate family time.
1.4
Overview of solutions
Fig.1 gives an overview of solutions
designed by us to address the root causes.
Chapter
2: Awareness Campaign
Awareness Campaign comprises
posters and a social media campaign, which emphasise the importance of family
and publicise our ‘Family First’ carnival and FAMtastic APP.
2.1
Posters
The posters solve root cause 2) on priority by
emphasising the importance of family. The poster for parents in Fig.2 reminds
them that their working hard is for the family, but working at the expense of
family time is counter-effective. The poster for teenagers in Fig.3 reminds them that
parents are their ‘First and Closest Friend’, encouraging
teenagers to spend more family time.
Fig.2: Design of poster for parents
Fig.3: Design of poster for teenagers
The posters are displayed at bus stations and MRT
stations, as past campaigns, such as the Share&Care Movement, have done (Tai,
2013). Individuals regularly visit these places, where they can get constant
reminders. Furthermore, the waiting time for buses and MRT trains allow for a
close look at the posters (MediaCorp,
n.d.).
The posters also encourage family members to join our
‘Family First’ Carnival and download our FAMtastic APP through a QR code at the
bottom.
We started
a social media tagging campaign as an effective way to promote our carnival (Quinn,
2014). In the campaign, families post a photo of
them with the words “I’m In!” on social media accounts such as Instagram (as illustrated
in Fig.4). The posting of family photos spreads a pro-family message,
encouraging families to prioritise family, hence solving root cause 2) on
priority. They hash-tag ‘#FamilyFirstCarnival’
in their post and tag their friends to invite them to join our carnival.
Fig.4: Post shared in social media
campaign
2.4 Prototyping and evaluation of Awareness Campaign
We explained our posters and
social media campaign to parents and teenagers to collect their feedback
(survey question and responses are in Appendices. C & D).
The strength of our posters is that they targetted
families with the lack of family time by depicting scenes relatable to their
real-life experience. Parents surveyed related to overnight working while
teenagers related to choosing friends over family. After seeing
the posters, them regretted neglecting family time and responded that would put
other things aside and make more time for family.
Our Awareness Campaign is
effective as it is able to reach a wide audience by targeting both tech-savvy and
non-tech-savvy family members through social media and posters respectively. Parents
who are unfamiliar with social media resonated with the posters while teenagers
found personal invitation from friends to the carnival more appealing.
‘Family First’ Carnival is a complete experience that
motivates family members to organise more family time. Following the suggested
route illustrated in Fig.5, participants are first reminded of the importance
of family time by our posters. They then learn useful skills to maximise family
time through two family games—Empathy Game and Puzzle Game. Finally, they are
introduced to our FAMtastic APP, which allows them to apply skills learnt to
organise family time regularly. The carnival is organised during a long weekend
in Botanic Gardens, where an open space can be booked online (Singapore Botanic
Gardens, n.d). The relatively long holidays and scenic environment attract more
families to come (National Parks, 2014; Thomas,
2011).
Fig.5: Floor
plan of ‘Family First’ Carnival
3.1 Empathy
Game
Empathy Game helps participants
understand other family members’ feelings and perspectives through role-playing
in difficult situations, which are commonly experienced by their family members
but are unfamiliar to them. The game is designed this way because stepping in
each other’s shoes is the best way to develop empathy (Corcoran, 1981). A
special note from their family member is incorporated in the simulation to
express that family member’s feelings and need for support in these difficult
times. This evokes a sense of responsibility towards family, which persuades
them to prioritise more on family time (Lewis, Tudball & Hand, 2001). Hence, Empathy Game aims to solve root causes 2) on
priority as well as root cause 3) on empathy.
One example of a simulation
that let parents experience preparation for examinations is explained in Fig.6.
Procedures
|
Rationales
|
|
1.
|
Parents
are given 15 minutes to memorise 3 pieces of A4 size revision materials.
|
This
simulates the time constraint and heavy workload students experience while
preparing for examinations.
|
2.
|
After
7 minutes, speakers in the tent start to create loud voices from the
student’s mind (e.g. The student’s voice: ‘I cannot fail this exam’.)
|
This
simulates the feeling of anxiety and growing stress students experience.
|
3.
|
After
15 minutes, a question paper is given.
The
second page of the question paper is a note written by the child. (e.g. “Mom,
I feel stressed and despondent every time I am in this situation. Can you
spend some time to support me”)
|
After
personally experienced the feelings of their child, parents are encouraged by
this note to spend more family time with their child to support him in his
difficult times.
|
Fig.6:
Procedures and rationales of a simulation process in Empathy Game
The simulation process allows
parents to experience the stress that teenagers feel in preparation for
examinations. This encourages them to be spend more time with their children in
order to counter the negative emotions their children feel.
3.2 Puzzle Game
Puzzle
Game requires family members to organise a simulated family timetable. It aims
to teach families the skill of proper time management, which can be applied in
real-life to help them find more common free time. Hence, this solves root
cause 1) on little common time.
As
illustrated in Fig.7, parents and teenagers are to stick magnetic cards
comprising daily activities on a board that has a design of daily 12-hour
timetable. Activity cards are designed of different length as they occupy
different durations (e.g. work takes 6 hours). The goal of the game is for
parents and teenagers to create as much common free time as possible. The game
sends the message that despite the most hectic schedules, proper time
management can still bring about common free time for family activities. To simulate
constraints faced in real-life, cards with restrictions on time of day (e.g.
morning) and family member are given. Additional cards are given at the end of
the game to simulate last-minute schedule changes.
Fig.7: Puzzle Game sample
To ensure the
continued practice of empathy and proper family time management, families are
introduced to our “Empathy Builder” and “Family Timetable” features in the
FAMtastic APP trial after they played the two games.
3.3
Prototyping and Evaluation of ‘Family First’ Carnival
We introduced our carnival to
parents and teenagers to collect their feedback (survey questions and responses
are in Appendices E & F).
The strength of our Empathy Game is that it helps teenagers and parents
overcome difficulties in expressing their feelings to other family members. Teenagers
responded that Empathy Game helped to overcome the difficulty in explaining
their stress to their parents while parents said it gave them a chance to share
their difficulties in work. Hence, Empathy Game enhances understanding and reduces
the possibility of conflicts, maximising enjoyment and meaning of family time.
One limitation of Empathy Game is that
participants may not willingly enter a stressful situation, as some respondents
pointed out.
However, teenagers desire more understanding
from parents on their situation and vice versa. Families we surveyed said that
if they were introduced to such a simulation, they would push their family
members to participate. Therefore, family members are encouraged by each other
to try out Empathy Game.
One limitation of Puzzle Game is that our
activity cards may not reflect the special cases in some families. Family
members expressed the concern that their real-life commitments differed greatly
from the generic timetable; hence they were unable to relate the game to
real-life.
We made the refinement of letting participants
design their own cards, with activities and durations close to their personal
experiences so that Puzzle Game became more personally relatable.
The overall strength of our carnival is that
it equips families with sustainable skill sets, which they can apply in daily
life to solve the lack of family time. Participants reflected that the improved
ability to better empathise with each other and synchronise family schedules warrants
more family time.
One limitation of ‘Family First’ Carnival is
inflexibility in locations and timing. Many families found it hard to attend
the carnival if they lived too far away or were occupied on the days.
A future extension would a traveling carnival. It could
be held at open spaces near HDB flats such as void decks. Reduced travelling
distance makes it much more convenient for residents nearby to attend the carnival.
Chapter 4: The FAMtastic APP
To provide a sustainable
way of organising family time, the FAMtastic APP consists of 3 complementary
features -- Empathy Builder, Family Timetable and Diary Competition. Empathy
Builder develops empathy to reduce possibility of conflict, motivating family
members to collaborate in organising the Family Timetable. The timetable helps
them find common free time for family activities. They can record and share
family activities in the Diary Competition, which incentivises families to
bond.
The app’s homepage is illustrated
in Fig.8. A Share function is available for easy sharing of the app, reaching a
greater audience (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz,
2014).
4.1
Empathy Builder
Empathy Builder is a
continuation of Empathy Game, with the aim of developing empathy between
parents and teenagers on a broader range of topics and in greater depth.
Parents and teenagers were
separately invited to focus group discussions in which they shared their perspectives
on common issues of parent-child conflicts (e.g. Boy-Girl Relationships). This
process ensures credibility of Empathy Builder’s content.
Based on the opinions
expressed in the discussion, we designed animations and readable text and
uploaded them on to the app. Two different interfaces are available as generally,
animations appeal to teenagers while readable text appeal to parents, according
to our pilot-test participants. Fig.9 shows the list of topics users can choose
from.
Fig.9: A
list of topics for parents and teenagers to choose from
One sample animation on the
topic of Boy-Girl Relationships is shown in Fig.10. Both approving and opposing
views are presented to give a holistic representation.
Fig.10: Screenshot of animated video
in Empathy Builder
With empathy developed through
Empathy Builder, a harmonious familial relationship is created, which promotes family
time (Sezov, 2002).
4.2
Family Timetable
Family Timetable is a
continuation of Puzzle Game. It provides easy management of common free time. As
illustrated in Fig.11, when the users key in individual free time, the
timetable highlights common free time for family activities. The app suggests
family activities they can participate in based on the length of common time (e.g.
Families For Life picnics for 4 hours of free time (Hui, 2014).) Alternatively,
users can also click on the Events page to browse through pro-family events or
promotions (as illustrated in Fig.12).
Fig.11: Family timetable Fig.12: Events page
4.3 Diary Competition
Diary Competition rallies
family members through shared joy and pride and builds a close-knit family,
which prioritises family time (Fivush, 2008).
As illustrated in Fig.13, the app’s
built-in “diary” allows family members to record family memories, which bonds
families when they reminisce these memories (Prosser, n.d.).
Fig.13: Family diary
As illustrated in Fig.14,
families can anonymously share their diary entry in the Competition section. Doing
so warrants a chance to win supermarket e-vouchers for redemption of flowers or
small gifts for themselves or their family members. The little prizes incentivise family time (Weinschenk,
2013) while exchanging gifts further bonds families (Komter
& Vollebergh, 1997). The 10 highest-voted posts per month receive the
vouchers.
Fig.14: Diary competition
Large-scale supermarkets like
NTUC FairPrice would sponsor the small free gifts aforementioned. FairPrice has
organised similar pro-family events before, such as their inaugural U picnic,
where freebies were provided (National Trade Union
Congress, n.d.). Furthermore, our
initiative is beneficial for them because by sponsoring us at low costs (each
stalk of flower costs $0.80 at FairPirce (FairPrice,
n.d.)), more customers are attracted when they redeem their prizes (Frey,
2003). Therefore,
we predict that FairPrice would be willing to sponsor this initiative.
4.4
Prototyping and Evaluation of FAMtastic APP
We visited family community
events to gather feedback on our FAMtastic APP (as illustrated in Fig.15)
(survey questions and responses are in appendices G & H).
The strength of Empathy
Builder is it maintains harmonious familial relationship over a long period of
time. Besides using Empathy Builder to resolve current family conflicts,
families surveyed also expressed interests in educating themselves on other
family issues to prevent future conflicts. Empathy Builder is therefore
effective in reducing conflicts in a long run, optimising family time.
One
limitation of Empathy Builder is that it is not age-specific. Teenagers’
viewpoints change drastically as they grow older (Piaget & Inhelder, 2013),
making it difficult for parents with children of different ages to use the
feature.
Hence, we would
refine Empathy Builder to categorise teenagers’ viewpoints according to age
groups, making it convenient for parents to relate the characteristic thinking
of an age group to their own child.
The strength of Family Timetable
is its suggestion of new and interesting family activities. Family members
surveyed liked this idea because self-initiated activities get repetitive and
boring over time. Therefore, the excitement over new experiences motivates more
family time.
One
limitation of Family Timetable is it only detects common free time among all
family members, which rarely happens in larger families. Larger families
reasoned that Timetable was limited as
it did not suggest activities when some family members were not available,
which were the norms for them.
Therefore, we
introduced a new option where users can set the timetable to highlight common
free time between two or more people to cater to the needs of larger families.
The strength of Diary Competition
is that it bonds families through a common goal. The general response to our
Diary Competition is that competition strengthens families as a team. Many expressed
they would organise more family activities in order to be the highest-voted
post of the month.
One
limitation of our Diary Competition is that even with the competition, busy
adults without the habit of writing a diary would not use it as they thought it
troublesome to come up with the content of the diary.
The refined
app would be linked to the user’s photo gallery. The app detects recent family photos
by facial recognition, and prompts users to upload them. Thus, a nicely
recorded family album is made with ease.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
Overall strength of our project is the synergy created
among Awareness Campaign, ‘Family First’ Carnival and FAMtastic APP. First, the
Awareness Campign gave them the will to improve family time. Then the ‘Family
First’ Carnival dispelled the misbelief that they cannot find more family time
by teaching them practical skills. Finally, the FAMtastic APP gave them
convenient way to practise the skills to optimise family time.
The ‘Family First’ Carnival is
not optimally sustainable, as it cannot be carried out regularly. However, its
impact is long lasting since the skills taught can be constantly reinforced
with the continued use of our FAMtastic APP. Overall, our project is able to
provide a sustainable solution to the lack of family time.
A future extension of our
project can be encouraging teenagers and parents to spend more family time with
grandparents who are often neglected (“Seniors
Living Alone”, 2014). The Awareness Campaign and ‘Family First’ Carnival can be
easily adopted to serve this purpose.
Word Count: 2998
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Appendix A: Transcript of focus group discussion with
teenagers
Facilitator:
Jocelyn
Hiranyajinda
Xia
Mian
Teenagers:
Name
|
Age
|
Anand Mantri
|
17
|
He Yiheng
|
14
|
Jia Qi
|
16
|
Liow De Jun
|
17
|
Sarah Lee
|
13
|
Transcript:
Jocelyn
|
Good afternoon, friends. Thank you
for participating in our discussion.
As part of our Project Work, we are
conducting this Focus Group Discussion to find out the negative consequences
of lack of quality family time. I will start off this discussion with a
question: Are you satisfied with the amount of family time that you currently
have?
|
Jia Qi
|
No, I am not. My parents are always
busy with their work and me with my studies. So basically there is little family
time.
|
Liow De Jun
|
Me too. My Father works nightshift so when I get
back home, he will not be home most of the time. But he does bring me to
school every morning so we will have some interaction then. We only go out
when most of us are free, such as the holidays and will go and eat in hawker
centres most of the time. On very rare occasions, we will go out for some
outing around once or twice a year.
|
Sarah Lee
|
Same, I feel that my family does
not have enough family time, as parents are constantly busy with work and
children with their studies.
|
Anand
|
For me, I spend a lot of time in
school and am busy with my co-curricular activities. So it is sometimes
difficult to find time to spend with my family.
|
Yiheng
|
Similar to Anand, I am so busy with
homework and co-curricular activities that I sometimes couldn’t find time
with my parents.
|
Xia Mian
|
Okay, thank you for your responses.
Now we will move on to the next question: Has the lack of family time
affected any of you emotionally or psychologically? For example, did
anyone feel loneliness, insecurity, stress as a result?
|
Sarah Lee
|
Yes, when we were still young,
there was a period of time when my brother and I did not have enough time
with my parents because they were always so busy with work. At that time, we
felt that maybe they did not treasure or love us enough. This started to lead
to insecurities because we questioned ourselves if we did anything wrong that
didn’t deserve their love or attention.
|
Jia Qi
|
I have experienced similar feelings
before. This is because when my mom was always at work, I had no one to
confide to, and always kept my feelings to myself. So whenever I had a
problem at school, I wasn’t able to tell my mother. This built up of stress led
me to feeling isolated, depressed. Sometimes I felt angry about my mom for
not paying enough attention to me.
|
Liow De Jun
|
I definitely agree with Jia Qi.
Teenagers like us generally find it difficult to open up to someone who we
rarely talk to and trust. So I often keep my problems to myself. Often time,
I feel sad and depressed and want to share my feeling with my parents.
However, they are busy for us to have in-depth conversation, which only make
me feel worse.
|
Yiheng
|
I feel distant from my parents when
there is a lack of family time. The fact that I cannot share my problems with
them when I need to adds to my stress and negative emotions.
|
Anand
|
I understand that my parents are
not intentionally neglecting me when we don’t have sufficient family time.
But I really wish that they would be there for me when I need them to.
|
Jocelyn
|
Thank you for your responses! Now,
moving on to our last question: Has the lack of family time ever had negative
consequences on familial ties?
|
Yiheng
|
Yes definitely. In fact, I think
that the quality and quantity of family time directly affect familial ties.
During the holidays when I have more time, I spend them with my family. It is
also during that time when I feel that I am closer and more bonded to them.
During exam period when I almost do not spend time with my family at all, I
rarely talk to them and hence have little knowledge of their lives. I also
find it difficult to understand and empathize with them. Therefore this leads
to conflicts and as you said, familial rifts.
|
Liow De Jun
|
I definitely can relate to Yiheng.
In the past, there were times when I only had little conversation with
my parents for a long time. I found
it extremely difficult to relate to them, much less trust them. This led to
tensions and conflicts when we discussed things like my results, which caused
further harm on our relationship.
|
Sarah Lee
|
Like what De Jun said, I personally
felt that when my parents and I didn’t have enough face-to-face
communication, we didn’t know what each other was thinking about and made a
lot of assumptions instead. This led to conflict and hence our relationships
got strained.
|
Anand
|
Yup, I think it is a given. No
relationship can be sustained without sufficient communication.
|
Jia Qi
|
I have a personal example of this,
when I was during my “teenage angst” period, I was very rebellious and did
not want to talk to my parents very much. This led to many fights and our
relationship was in a very bad state.
|
Annex
B: Transcript of focus group discussion with parents
Facilitator:
Wang
Qijing, Shawnia
Steven
Adults:
Mrs Lee (Sarah Lee’s Mother)
Mrs Liow (De Jun’s Mother)
Mrs Liow (De Jun’s Mother)
Mdm
Shao (Jia Qi’s Mother)
Mr
Mantri (Anand’s Father)
Mrs
He (Yiheng’s Mother)
Transcript
of FGD
Person
|
Discussion
|
Shawnia
|
Good
afternoon parents. Thank you for participating in our discussion.
As
part of our Project Work, we are conducting this Focus Group Discussion to
find out the negative consequences of lack of quality family time. I will
start off this discussion with a question: Are you satisfied with the amount
of family time that you currently have?
|
Mrs
Lee
|
For me, I feel
that there is not enough as my children are always outside either studying or
hanging out with their friends.
|
Mdm
Shao
|
Yes,
it the same in my family, my daughter, Jia Qi, is always busy with her
studies.
|
Mrs
Liow
|
Me
too. To be honest, sometimes I feel guilty of neglecting my family for work.
|
Mrs
He
|
In
my family, our schedules conflict too much, and we really find it difficult
to organize our schedules for family activity.
|
Mr
Mantri
|
My
son is always busy with his work. It’s quiet difficult to find a time to go
out together.
|
Steven
|
Okay,
thank you for your responses. Now we will move on to the next question: Has
the lack of family time affected any of you emotionally or psychologically?
For example, does anyone feel loneliness, insecurity, stress as a result?
|
Mrs Lee
|
Since my work occupied me a lot, I
failed to communicate my thoughts and feelings properly to my son, leading to
many misunderstandings. I was also quite upset when he always ignored me for
his phone, and felt that he had disrespected us.
|
Mrs Liow
|
I am a person who cares a lot about
my family members, I feel extremely upset when I do not have a channel to
talk to my child on a comfortable and personal level.
|
Mdm Shao
|
There was a time where it was
extremely difficult to talk to my daughter because she was so busy with work
and the stress made her very sensitive. We fought daily and made both of us
extremely upset. It was really really
hurtful, and a really hard period of my life.
|
Mrs He
|
I never had an extremely bad
experience before, but sometimes if I don’t go out with my daughter enough
(like for more than 2 weeks), I will start feeling distant and of course,
sad.
|
Mr Mantri
|
Same, because my son and I try to
maintain a close relationship. When we don’t have quality family time for a
long while, I would start to feel upset because I feel more secure when we
have quality conversations and I know everything that is going on in his
life.
|
Shawnia
|
Thank you for your responses! Now,
moving on to our last question: Has the lack of family time ever had negative
consequences on familial ties?
|
Mrs He
|
Yiheng usually spends more time
with us during the holidays, which we really appreciate. We really look
forward to the holidays because we find that we are able to talk to her more,
and hence forge closer and stronger relationships. When we spend less time
together, our relationship and the way we communicate becomes more awkward,
and we don’t feel like knowing each other that well.
|
Mr Mantri
|
I have a personal example of this.
During long breaks due to public holiday, my family tends to spend more time
together, therefore we talk more and hence we naturally feel closer to each
other. However, once we no longer have time for each other, our relationship
weakens, and we feel distant from each other.
|
Mrs Lee
|
When I had to leave my family for a
work trip for a long period of time, I felt distant from them. Perhaps this
was because I could not be updated with their daily life as I usually do.
|
Mrs Liao
|
Yes definitely, that’s why I feel
that it is super important for families to spend quality time together frequently.
|
Mdm Shao
|
I agree with Mrs. Liao. I treat the
frequency of family outings as an indicator of the health of our
relationship. When there were little family outings in a month, I felt our
relationships loosened and we failed to understand each other as well. These
were the times when I usually recommend to family to have an activity like
watching a movie together. Then we would feel closely- knitted again.
|
Appendix.
C: Survey on effectiveness of Awareness Campaign
1. What impact do our posters
have on how you view family?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Do you think our posters
are effective in generating awareness of the importance of family time? Why or
why not?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Do you think our social
media campaign is an effective way to attract families, especially those with
insufficient family time, to come to our ‘Family First’ Carnival?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Appendix.
D: Responses to survey on effectiveness of Awareness Campaign
1. What
impact do our posters have on how you view family?
This
poster exactly reflects my situation, I could completely relate to it. I was
very surprised because I realised that I have been neglecting my family and
that I should prioritise it over anything else.
2. Do you
think our posters are effective in generating awareness of the importance of
family time? Why or why not?
Yes.
Scenario of poster very relatable, strikes a chord with the reality of my
working experience.
Yes. The
caption is thought provoking as the comparison between family and friends
brings a fresh angle to me and catches my attention. I think I will pay more attention to family
time and become more aware of the importance of family time.
However,
the success of the posters might be limited because at MRT or bus stations,
people are usually not at work, hence they may not relate as well to the scenes
on the poster, compared to when they are working in office.
3. Do you
think our social media campaign is an effective way to attract families,
especially those with insufficient family time, to come to our ‘Family First’
Carnival?
Yes,
when my friends tag me on Instagram, I will feel obliged to go out of respect
and friendship. Also, teenagers like me use social media a lot, we will see
this campaign often. Hence, this omnipresent reminder is effective in stressing
the importance of family time.
No, it
is not effective because even though people might want to go, this does not
mean that they will have the means to do so. For example, no matter how
convincing and effective the campaign is, if the location of the carnival is
far and inconvenient, some families might not have enough time or money to go.
Appendix. E
: Survey on effectiveness of ‘Family First’ Carnival
1. Are you interested in
joining our ‘Family First’ Carnival?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Do you
think our Empathy Game is an effective way in improving familial relations and
hence, promoting family time? Why or why not?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Do you
think our Puzzle Game is an effective way in helping family members better
organise family time? Why or why not?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Do you
think our ‘Family First’ Carnival is an effective way in promoting family time?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Appendix. F
: Responses to survey on effectiveness of ‘Family First’ Carnival
1. Are you
interested in joining our ‘Family First’ Carnival?
42 out
of 50 respondents said Yes.
2. Do you think our
Empathy Game is an effective way in improving familial relations and hence,
promoting family time? Why or why not?
Yes, it
is effective because it helps me to tell my parents how I feel under stressful
or difficult situations. Usually, I feel awkward to talk to them about my
feelings. Empathy Game make it easier for them to understand my feelings. This
can improve our relationship.
Yes, my
child sometimes just doesn’t understand how hard I’ve worked for him. I won’t
tell this to him myself but I think the Empathy Game is a good way to let him
experience my feelings. I think this can make him be more respectful towards us
and improve our relationship.
Yes, it
is interesting to see how my parents react to the stressful situation I face in
my studies.
No, why
would I want to experience such a stressful situation in a carnival which is
supposed to be fun?
3. Do you think our Puzzle Game
is an effective way in helping family members better organise family time? Why
or why not?
Yes. I
like the Puzzle Game. it is very realistic as it involves schedules of an
average Singaporean. I think people can apply the time management skill learnt from
the game to daily life easily.
No,
people all have different schedules, it is much more complicated than the
activities suggested in the Puzzle Game. I find it an over-generalisation of
real-life situation and has limited usefulness.
No, when
my family tried to organise family time, we used to experience a lot of last
minute changes which are not reflected in the game.
4. Do you think our ‘Family
First’ Carnival is an effective way in promoting family time?
Yes,
effective because it teaches useful skills such as empathising with each other
and organising time as a family. The skills are helpful as them can be used
after the carnival.
No, very
inconvenient for my family to travel such a long distance. Especially when the
parents are super busy.
Appendix.
G: Survey on effectiveness of FAMtastic APP
1. Would you use our FAMtastic
APP?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Among the three features, 1) Family Timetable, 2)
Diary Competition, 3) Empathy Builder, which one do you think best promotes
family time? Why?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Is there
any feature that you think would be ineffective in promoting family time? Why?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Do you think our FAMtastic APP is an effective way
in promoting family time?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Appendix. H:
Responses to survey on effectiveness of FAMtastic APP
1. Would
you use our FAMtastic APP?
46 out
of 50 respondents said Yes.
2. Among the three features, 1) Empathy Builder, 2) Family Timetable, 3)
Diary Competition, which one do you think best promotes family time? Why?
Empathy
Builder, helpful to compare my view with general parental thinking so I can be
more neutral and rational in my view.
Empathy
Builder. I am always curious of what my child think about these issues. Even
though these issues do not cause conflicts in my family. I would still learn
from the Empathy Builder to prevent future incidents.
Empathy
Builder. It helps me to understand why my parents are reprimanding me so often.
I will use it so that we would have less conflicts and hopefully more happy
family time
Family
Timetable, because sometimes my family does not know what to do with some
common free time and this timetable can suggest some fun activities to us.
Family
Timetable. It helps to synchronise each other’s way of organising schedules.
Uniform way of recording schedules ensures that people can easily understand
each other’s schedules. Hence, it makes it easier to organise family time.
Diary
Competition as being best post of the month is a source of pride and joy which
incentivises us to organise more family bonding.
Diary
Competition Competition with other families bonds us like a team. This
competition is attractive to Singaporean families because of the kiasu culture.
3. Is there any feature that you think would be ineffective in
promoting family time? Why?
Empathy
Builder. There can be different views within parents, and teenagers. The
Empathy Builder may not represent the viewpoints of my child.
Empathy
Builder. I have a elder son at jC and a younger son at secondary school. They
look at the same thing in very different ways. I don’t know how the Empathy
Builder can apply to both of them.
Family
Timetable. I am super busy with my work and hardly had any off-peak time. I
think it will be difficult for me to find common free time with family members
using the app.
Family
Timetable. My family have 5 people, it is always difficult for all 5 of us to
be available for family activities. So if the Timetable can only suggest
activities when everyone is available, I think it will be of limited use to us.
Diary
Competiton. Some people are reluctant to write a lot as they do not have the
habit of keeping a journal.
4. Do you think our FAMtastic APP is an
effective way in promoting family time?
Yes. It
secures a family connection even when
family members are physically apart.
Yes.
Since it is an app and nowadays everyone has a phone, so it is very convenient
No.
because it can only be accessed by people with smartphones. What happens to underprivileged families who cannot afford to have a phone for every
family member?
No. Some
parents may not be technologically savvy, may find app difficult to use.
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