scholarly journals Attachment, Religiosity, and Perceived Stress Among Religious Minorities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Impact of Cultural Context

2021 ◽  
pp. 009164712110255
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Schwaiger ◽  
Syeda Saniya Zehra ◽  
Ivan Suneel

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on stress levels around the world. In developing nations such as Pakistan, lack of resources and socioeconomic inequalities have compounded the negative impact of the pandemic, especially for minorities. Religion in the developing, collectivistic, Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan is a powerful identity marker inherited at birth and reflected in all identifying documents. A well-developed conceptual framework for religion is attachment to God, which has demonstrated strong predictive value for perceived stress in Western samples. Given the importance of other attachment relationships as well, this study has examined the predictive value of attachment to parents, attachment to God, and religiosity on perceived stress in Christian minorities within a Pakistani context. The sample consisted of 183 adult Christian Pakistanis. Multiple regression indicated that religiosity, attachment to father, and attachment to God were the strongest predictors of perceived stress, though not in the same pattern as expected in Western contexts. This finding demonstrates the importance of the impact of culture, attachment relationships, and religious context on perceived stress, indicating a need to consider both religion and culture in psychological care, as well as local and international public policy, to mitigate stress along minorities in developing nations in such uncertain times.

2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
Neha Thakur (Rai) ◽  
Arvind Kumar Singh ◽  
Narendra Rai ◽  
Devesh Kumar Shukla

Background: With the ongoing growth and expansion of digital media and COVID-19 pandemic, children are inclining more and more toward spending time on digital media as compared to outdoor sports, leading to poor physical and mental growth. Developed nations have already set up a screen time guideline which is yet to be established in developing nations. This study was conducted with the objectives of identifying the needs of screen time guidelines and to study the impact of screen time on mental and physical health in children. Aims and Objectives: This study aims to check the screen time in children aged 2–18 and find the health consequences both physical and psychological in those children. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study on children aged 2–18 years was conducted between 2019 and 2020. Parents were asked to fill a pre-structured questionnaire. Impact on health physical and mental were assessed by pediatrician and psychologist. Results: A total of 155 children were enrolled in the study. Mean child hours in children aged 2–5 years, 5–10 years, and 10–18 years were 4 h, 5.83 h, and 6.29 h on week days and 5.64 h, 5.76 h, and 7.69 h on weekends, respectively. More than one-third of children had age of onset of screen time below 2 years of age. About 70% of children had malnutrition. Only 18% of parents were aware of concept of screen free days. Screen time had negative impact on health (P=0.0001) and on behavior of child (P=0.001). Average increase in screen time during COVID-19 was nearly 3 times the pre-COVID era. Conclusion: This study has paved the way for the need of larger study and development of guidelines on impact of screen time on children in developing nations where screen time guidelines is yet to be set more so in era of COVID 19 pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 581-596
Author(s):  
Yongyong Yang ◽  
Wendian Shi ◽  
Beina Zhang ◽  
Youming Song ◽  
Dezhen Xu

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the structure, implicit attitude and consequences of followers' implicit followership theories in the Chinese cultural context through three studies. Study 1 explores the structure of followers' implicit followership theories. Study 2 examines the implicit attitude of followers towards followers' implicit followership theories. Study 3 verifies the impact of followers' implicit followership theories on the quality of collegial relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe data for study 1 (n = 321) and study 3 (n = 243) were collected through an online self-report questionnaire, and the data for study 2 (n = 30) were collected through the go/no-go association task.FindingsThe structure of followers' implicit followership theories includes two dimensions: positive followership prototypes and negative followership prototypes. Followers' implicit attitudes were more likely to match positive followership prototypes than negative followership prototypes. Positive followership prototypes had a significantly positive impact on the quality of collegial relationships, whereas negative followership prototypes had a significantly negative impact on the quality of collegial relationships.Research limitations/implicationsThe psychology and behaviour of employees can be better understood by exploring followers' implicit followership theories.Practical implicationsEmployees hold a relatively positive implicit attitude towards followers. Therefore, managers should provide positive feedback to improve employees' positive self-cognition so that employees can better serve the organization and better promote its development.Originality/valueThe paper is one of the few studies to explore followers' implicit followership theories in the Chinese cultural context.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S609-S609
Author(s):  
A. Kchaou ◽  
M. Hajjaji ◽  
R. Masmoudi ◽  
I. Sellami ◽  
M.L. Masmoudi ◽  
...  

IntroductionThe medical and scientific communities are continually reporting that night work can increase the risk of certain disorders and have a negative impact on the overall well-being of employees.ObjectivesThis study wanted to examine the impact of night work on physical and psychological well-being of hospital staff.MethodsWe carried out a cross-sectional study about a representative sample of hospital staff. We used validated self-reporting instruments: the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Subjective Well-being Scale (SWS). Data were analyzed using SPSS-20.ResultsOur study concerned 519 hospital staffs. More than half were male (53%) and 83.1% had worked in the same position for more than two years. More than half of the participants (51. 3%) considered themselves in very good health. Also 41.5% of participants had a well-being index reduced and 26% of personal had high perceived stress. Correlation analysis had shown that more than one guard at week was associated with high levels of perceived stress (P = 0.004) and well-being index reduced (P = 0.000). After adjusting for categories, more than one shift work at week was associated to well-being index reduced with odds ratios of 1.57 (confidence interval 95% [1.07 to 2.30]).ConclusionThere is a clear correlation between night work, perceived stress and subjective well-being of different categories of hospital staff. Shift work interferences on health and well-being are complex and multifaceted in their origins and time manifestations, dealing with several aspects of personal characteristics, and working and living conditions.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xia Xu ◽  
Ling Chen ◽  
Yuan Yuan ◽  
Ming Xu ◽  
Xiaocui Tian ◽  
...  

Our previous study indicated that clinical teaching nurses in China suffered high levels of perceived stress and burnout, mainly because they were taking double responsibilities of nursing and teaching at the same time. The study aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of how and when perceived stress increased the risk of burnout and decreased life satisfaction among clinical teaching nurses. Questionnaires about perceived stress, burnout, emotion regulation, and life satisfaction were self-administered to 1,372 teaching nurses from eight tertiary military hospitals in China. Correlation and hierarchical multiple regressions were employed for data analysis. The results revealed that perceived stress had direct and indirect impacts on life satisfaction, with the principal element of burnout—emotional exhaustion—acting as a mediator. Moreover, the association between perceived stress and emotional exhaustion was moderated by emotion suppression—a key emotion regulation strategy. The negative impact of perceived stress on burnout was stronger among teaching nurses with high emotion suppression than among those with low emotion suppression. The present study contributed to a deeper understanding of the relationship between perceived stress and life satisfaction and also suggested further research into emotion regulation interventions to alleviate or eliminate the impact of perceived stress on burnout and eventually improve the life satisfaction for Chinese clinical nursing teachers.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-27
Author(s):  
Osibanjo Adewale Omotayo ◽  
Abolaji Joachim Abiodun ◽  
Akinrole Olumuyiwa Fadugba

The paper investigates the perception of Nigerian executives on the impact of flexitime on organizational performance. Effort is made to explore the attitudinal disposition of employees towards flexitime and how gender affects employee satisfaction with flexitime. The study, based on administered questionnaires as the main medium for data collection from managers in private sector of the Nigerian economy, utilizes correlations and multi-variate regression analysis to determine variables that significantly contribute to manager’s satisfaction with flexible work arrangement. The study finds that marital status and gender exert significant negative impact on level of satisfaction with flexitime. In addition, gender, marital status and motivation capabilities of flexitime were found to be a significant determinant of satisfaction with flexitime. Therefore, given the cultural context of the study it does appear that organizations might found it profitable to adopt a flexitime policy so as to relieve their employees some family or domestic burden with the attendant motivation benefit that increases employee performances.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-35
Author(s):  
Syeda Saniya Zehra ◽  
Elizabeth Schwaiger

Introduction: Research indicates that attachment to God is correlated with parental attachment and perceived stress.  However, these relationships have not been studied outside the Western context.  The present research evaluated the relationship between attachment to God and attachment to parents within different family systems and the impact of these attachments on perceived stress. Methods: A sample of 284 Christian undergraduate students was surveyed.  The data were collected from the participants through convenience sampling.  Relationships between attachment to parents, attachment to God, religiosity, and perceived stress were studied. Results: A significant positive relationship between attachment to parents and to God was found for the nuclear family system on the anxiety subscale.  For the avoidance subscale, both nuclear and joint family systems had significant positive relationships between parental attachment and attachment to God; however, it was stronger for joint family systems.  The multiple regression analysis showed parental avoidance (β = .256, p <.001) and God anxiety (β = .281, p <.001) as the strongest predictors of stress. Discussion: The findings highlight the impact of collectivistic cultural values, particularly the importance of relationships.  The implications include the significance of the impact of culture on attachment relationships and the finding that attachment correlates with lower levels of perceived stress.  The research also shows the difference in attachment styles depending upon the family system the participant belongs to which can again be attributed to cultural norms and values.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moustafa Abdelmotaleb ◽  
Nacef Mouri ◽  
Sudhir K. Saha

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between leader-signaled knowledge-hiding behavior (LSKH) and employee organizational identification (OI) with self-interest climate perceptions (SIC) as a mediator. This study also takes into consideration the impact of individual differences (i.e. employee trait of agreeableness) in shaping these relationships. Design/methodology/approach Two-wave data were collected from a sample of employees working in service industry companies in Egypt (N = 305). The mediation model (model 4) and the moderated mediation model (model 14) were tested using the statistical package for the social sciences PROCESS macro. The indirect effect of LSKH behavior on employee OI was examined using the bootstrapping approach (n = 5,000) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the indices. Findings Findings show that LSKH behavior has a negative impact on employee OI through SIC perceptions. Additionally, a moderation analysis indicates that the employee trait agreeableness strengthens the negative relationship between SIC and OI as well as the indirect relationship between LSKH behavior and employee OI. Originality/value While previous studies mainly focused on employee knowledge-hiding behavior, this study extends this nascent stream of literature by investigating the impact of this behavior at the leader’s level in the Egyptian cultural context. The results provide insights into the consequences of this type of behavior on important outcomes, namely, SIC and OI.


2007 ◽  
Vol 177 (4S) ◽  
pp. 469-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Boorjian ◽  
Sameer A. Siddiqui ◽  
Brant A. Inman ◽  
Jeffrey M. Slezak ◽  
R. Jeffrey Karnes ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 116-123
Author(s):  
A. P. Korzh ◽  
T. V. Zahovalko

Recently, the number of published works devoted to the processes of synanthropization of fauna, is growing like an avalanche, which indicates the extreme urgency of this theme. In our view, the process of forming devices to coexist with human and the results of his life reflects the general tandency of the modern nature evolution. Urbanization is characteristic for such a specific group of animals like amphibians, the evidence of which are numerous literature data. Many researchers use this group to assess the bioindicative quality of the environment. For this aim a variety of indicators are used: from the cellular level of life of organization up to the species composition of the group in different territories. At the same time, the interpretation of the results is not always comparable for different areas and often have significantly different interpretations by experts. Urban environment, primarily due to the contamination is extremely aggressive to amphibians. As a consequence, the urban populations of amphibians may be a change in the demographic structure, affecting the reproductive ability of the population, the disappearance of the most sensitive species or individuals, resizing animals, the appearance of abnormalities in the development, etc. At the same time play an important amphibians in the ecosystems of cities, and some species in these conditions even feel relatively comfortable. Therefore, it is interesting to understand the mechanisms of self-sustaining populations of amphibians in urban environments. To assess the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on the development of amphibian populations were used cognitive modeling using the program Vensim PLE. Cognitive map of the model for urban and suburban habitat conditions were the same. The differences concerned the strength of connections between individual factors (migration, fertility, pollution) and their orientation. In general, factors like pollution, parasites, predators had negative impact on the population, reducing its number. The birth rate, food and migration contributed to raising number of individuals. Some of the factors affected on the strength to of each other as well: the majority of the factors affected the structure of the population, had an influence on the fertility. Thanks to it the model reflects the additive effect of complex of factors on the subsequent status of the population. Proposed and analyzed four scenarios differing strength and duration of exposure. In the first scenario, a one-time contamination occurs and not subsequently repeated. The second and third scenario assumes half board contamination, 1 year (2 scenario) and two years (scenario 3). In the fourth scenario, the pollution affected the population of amphibians constantly. In accordance with the results of simulation, much weaker than the natural populations respond to pollution - have them as an intensive population growth and its disappearance at constant pollution is slow. Changes to other parameters of the model showed that this pollution is the decisive factor -only the constant action leads to a lethal outcome for the populations. All other components of the model have a corrective effect on the population dynamics, without changing its underlying trand. In urban areas due to the heavy impact of pollution maintaining the population is only possible thanks to the migration process – the constant replenishment of diminishing micropopulations of natural reserves. This confirms the assumption that the form of existence metapopulations lake frog in the city. In order to maintain the number of amphibians in urban areas at a high level it is necessary to maintain existing migration routes and the creation of new ones. Insular nature of the placement of suitable habitats in urban areas causes the metapopulation structure of the types of urbanists. Therefore, the process of urbanization is much easier for those species whicht are capable of migration in conditions of city. In the initial stages of settling the city micropopulationis formed by selective mortality of the most susceptible individuals to adverse effects. In future, maintaining the categories of individuals is provided mainly due to migration processes metapopulisation form of the species of existence is supported). It should be noted that the changes in the previous levels are always saved in future. In the case of reorganizations of individuals we of morphology can assume the existence of extremely adverse environmental conditions that threaten the extinction of the micropopulations. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Elena Blagoeva

The impact of the last global economic crisis (2008) on the European economy put a strain on higher education (HE), yet it also pushed the sector towards intensive reforms and improvements. This paper focuses on the “Strategy for the Development of Higher Education in the Republic of Bulgaria 2014-2020”. With a case study methodology, we explore the strategic endeavours of the Bulgarian government to comply with the European directions and to secure sustainable growth for the HE sector. Our research question is ‘How capable is the Bulgarian HE Strategy to overcome the economic and systemic restraints of Bulgarian higher education?’. Because the development of strategies for HE within the EU is highly contextual, a single qualitative case study was chosen as the research approach. HE institutions are not ivory towers, but subjects to a variety of external and internal forces. Within the EU, this is obviated by the fact that Universities obtain their funds from institutions such as governments, students and their families, donors, as well as EU-level programmes. Therefore, to explore how these pressures interact to affect strategic action on national level, the case method is well suited as it enabled us to study the phenomena thoroughly and deeply. The paper suggests the actions proposed within the Strategy have the potential to overcome the delay, the regional isolation and the negative impact of the economic crisis on the country. Nevertheless, the key elements on which the success or failure of this Strategy hinges are the control mechanisms and the approach to implementation. Shortcomings in these two aspects of strategic actions in HE seem to mark the difference between gaining long-term benefits and merely saving face in front of international institutions.


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