Abstract
Psychological well-being is a major global concern receiving more scholarly attention following the 2008 Great Recession, and it becomes even more relevant in the context of COVID-19 outbreak. In this study, we investigated the impact of economic uncertainty resulting from natural disasters, epidemics, and financial crisis on individuals’ mental health. As unemployment rate exponentially increases, individuals are faced with health and economic concerns. Not all society members are affected to the same extent, and marginalized groups, such as those suffering from chronic mental illnesses or low-income families cannot afford the downsizing, mass lay-offs and lack of access to public health services. Psychiatric profession is familiarized with the phenomenon of intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and we examine how this concept is associated with job uncertainty and social identity disturbance. Several studies have formally investigated the effects of IU, but to our knowledge, this is the first research integrating the psychological well-being, job uncertainty and identity disturbance caused by economic breakdown. Literature points to many reported cases of PTSD, anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies following major social disasters. Yet, we have undertaken to analyze the subjective experiences underlying the self-harming behaviors in an attempt to fill the methodological gap by drawing insights from prominent psychological, sociological and economic theories. We find economic uncertainty to have a positive relation to job uncertainty and identity disturbance, and a negative relationship with psychological well-being. Psychological well-being depends on coherency between both abstract subjective and concrete objective identity, and when these perceptions are inconsistent, cognitive dissonance arises resulting in identity disturbance. We argue that stability is not associated with monetary advantage only, but also with a wide range of other benefits that are crucial for individuals’ growth, satisfaction and sense of identity. Therefore, we propose the implementation of social support and public welfare policies to mitigate health risks during the turbulent socio-economic changes.
Highlights
The uprising COVID-19 epidemiological and economic crisis prompted serious challenges with regards to socio-economic determinants of mental health
Unemployment is found to be associated with mental health (Bijlsma et al, 2017; Jofre-Bonet et al, 2018), and job insecurity leads to severe psychological damage (Caroli and Godard, 2016; Bünnings et al, 2017), especially considering the possible consequences of losing jobs such as social stigma and loss of social support (Gathergood, 2005)
Mental health is the essence of public health and it is significant for many countries going through the same economic crisis, either by laying off employees or by being deprived of a vital labour force due to psychological consequences
Summary
The uprising COVID-19 epidemiological and economic crisis prompted serious challenges with regards to socio-economic determinants of mental health. Disturbance, Job Uncertainty and Psychological Well-Being Model that declines in economic activities may cause cognitive and affective disturbances as a result of the combination of many devastating factors, such as unemployment, downsizing of medical and social services, and cut in public spending (Meltzer et al, 2010). All of these combined with job uncertainty, and uncertainty of future, in general, cause serious mental damages, and result in the occurrence of intolerence of uncertainty induced depressive-anxiety disorders (Wright et al, 2016). We contribute to the existing body of knowledge by adopting previously established and empirically confirmed mental health implications We integrate these constructs in a new conceptual framework and apply it in the context of COVID-19 outbreak for testing the psychological and psychiatric effect of uncertainty. Determining specific factors undermining the psychological well-being that are direct consequences of COVID-19
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