scholarly journals Burnout, Psychological Capital and Health during COVID-19 Social Isolation: A Longitudinal Analysis

Author(s):  
Mariano Meseguer de Pedro ◽  
María Magdalena Fernández-Valera ◽  
Mariano García-Izquierdo ◽  
María Isabel Soler Sánchez

Background: Drawing on the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic and its sanitary measures on coping strategies for preserving health, it is also necessary to add exposure to certain work stressors, such as burnout. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of the confinement situation caused by COVID-19 on the levels of self-perceived health and psychological capital in a sample of workers, as well as to analyze whether exposure to burnout before social isolation would help to explain the levels of health and psychological capital. Methods: Data were collected in a longitudinal design. Time 1 surveys (December 2019) were sent to a sample of 354 Spanish workers while in Time 2 (April 2020) the employees completed 235 questionnaires. Results: Our findings indicate a significant worsening of employees’ health perception (t = −4.13; p < 0.01) and psychological capital (4.10, p < 0.01) levels during mandatory confinement in Spain. Our results also revealed that emotional exhaustion is the only burnout dimension capable of explaining the variance of health while self-efficacy does regarding psychological capital. Conclusion: We conclude a significant reduction in self-perceived health and psychological capital during COVID-19 mandatory confinement, and that burnout acts as a predictor variable in both health and psychological capital variance.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salima Hamouche

Physical distancing is one of the non-pharmaceutical measures adopted to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Although it appears to be effective in mitigating this spread, its implementation in workplaces may undermine employees’ mental health. In fact, torn between the fear of contagion and the need to maintain their jobs, employees must also comply with physical distancing measures in the workplace, which alter social interactions and set a predetermined frame and distance that guide employees’ behaviors within the organization while they need empathy. This situation might increase their level of stress. This paper is a narrative review that addresses the impact of physical distancing in the workplace on employees’ mental health. It presents the main factors that might moderate this impact and it recommends organizational interventions that can help to mitigate it. Physical distancing measures in workplaces are necessary and inevitable. Notwithstanding, they might undermine employees’ mental health, whence the importance to implement proper organizational actions to support employees and to facilitate their adaptation, in this unprecedented organizational change. This paper examines a relatively unexplored topic. It goes beyond examining social isolation to explore how setting a predetermined frame and distance can have an impact on employees’ mental health and recommends interventions that might help organizations to prevent mental health issues.


Author(s):  
Ward van Zoonen ◽  
Claartje L. ter Hoeven

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic and outbreak response represent a global crisis that has affected various aspects of people’s lives, including work. Speculation is rife about the impact of the crisis on employees. Countries and organizations worldwide have categorized some work as essential and, by extension, other work as nonessential. This study aims to investigate the impact of the pandemic by examining the relationship between work disruptions (at time 1) and general distress (at time 2) through various work stressors, contrasting the experiences of employees in essential versus nonessential work. For employees with essential jobs, there is a significant indirect effect of work disruptions on general distress through hindrance stressors. This relationship is not found for employees with nonessential jobs. The general distress of these employees is more strongly affected by disruptions through social stressors (here, social isolation). Hence, this study demonstrates how general distress is affected in different ways for employees conducting essential work and those conducting nonessential work. We further highlight the importance of considering social stressors in this relationship, especially for nonessential work. Organizational change communication quality mitigates the relationship between isolation and general distress for employees with nonessential jobs, but not for those with essential jobs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. a3en
Author(s):  
José Aparecido da Silva ◽  
Rosemary Conceição dos Santos

This work deals with the psychological and cognitive reactions that are established in individuals experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic in four perspectives, namely: social isolation, psychological factors, personality factors and behavioral methods, established interdisciplinarily within the scope of Social and Human Sciences and Public / Collective Health. It also presents partial results obtained with the development of bibliographic research aimed at studying the impact of COVID-19 in environments of communication, journalism and / or individual and collective social education


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 194-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freda-Marie Hartung ◽  
Britta Renner

Humans are social animals; consequently, a lack of social ties affects individuals’ health negatively. However, the desire to belong differs between individuals, raising the question of whether individual differences in the need to belong moderate the impact of perceived social isolation on health. In the present study, 77 first-year university students rated their loneliness and health every 6 weeks for 18 weeks. Individual differences in the need to belong were found to moderate the relationship between loneliness and current health state. Specifically, lonely students with a high need to belong reported more days of illness than those with a low need to belong. In contrast, the strength of the need to belong had no effect on students who did not feel lonely. Thus, people who have a strong need to belong appear to suffer from loneliness and become ill more often, whereas people with a weak need to belong appear to stand loneliness better and are comparatively healthy. The study implies that social isolation does not impact all individuals identically; instead, the fit between the social situation and an individual’s need appears to be crucial for an individual’s functioning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 127-131
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Parfin ◽  
Krystian Wdowiak ◽  
Marzena Furtak-Niczyporuk ◽  
Jolanta Herda

AbstractIntroduction. The COVID-19 is the name of an infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2). It was first diagnosed in December 2019 in patients in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The symptoms are dominated by features of respiratory tract infections, in some patients with a very severe course leading to respiratory failure and, in extreme cases to death. Due to the spread of the infection worldwide, the WHO declared a pandemic in March 2020.Aim. An investigation of the impact of social isolation introduced due to the coronavirus pandemic on selected aspects of life. The researchers focused on observing changes in habits related to physical activity and their connections with people’s subjective well-being and emotional state.Material and methods. The study was carried out within the international project of the group „IRG on COVID and exercise”. The research tool was a standardized questionnaire.Results. Based on the data collected and the analysis of the percentage results, it can be observed that the overwhelming majority of people taking up physical activity reported a better mood during the pandemic. However, statistical tests do not confirm these relationships due to the small sample size.Conclusions. Isolation favours physical activity. Future, in-depth studies, by enlarging the population group, are necessary to confirm the above observations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. K. Sharma ◽  
V. P. Shrotriya ◽  
D. Imtiaz ◽  
S. B. Gupta

<bold>Introduction:</bold> Perceived Health is a subjective assessment of the physical as well as mental health and includes so many aspects as mentioned in SF-36 form that are difficult to capture clinically such as incipient disease, physiological, psychological reserves and social functions. To assess the impact of Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and other socio-demographic factors on the Social Functioning component of mental health of the patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Bareilly. <bold>Material and Methods:</bold> Perceived health status of the patients was assessed by the Social Functioning dimension of the Mental Component Summary (MCS) using the SF-36 form. <bold>Results:</bold> The presence of both Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension was associated with lower Social Functioning scores compared to those with diabetes (p = 0.013) and hypertension alone. Age was negatively related with Social Functioning scores (p<0.001) but male gender (p>0.000) and higher income (p<0.424) were all associated with higher Social Functioning scores. Rural subjects were found to have better SF score compared to urban. <bold>Conclusion:</bold> Age, gender and morbidity was found to have profound influence on Social Functioning scoring of the subjects. However, the results should be interpreted in terms of the study’s limitations.


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