Job Insecurity, Work-Related Flow, and Financial Anxiety in the Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic and Economic Downturn.

Sawzan Sadaqa Basyouni,Mogeda El Sayed El Keshky

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.632265

Sawzan Sadaqa Basyouni, Mogeda El Sayed El Keshky

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.632265

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Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, every domain of industry has experienced a severe economic downturn with concomitant stress throughout the economy. Employees working in government and private sectors are experiencing different psychological problems. The current study was conducted to investigate the role of work-related flow in the relationship of job insecurity with financial anxiety in the employees working in private and government sectors of Saudi Arabia. The sample comprised 1,195 employees, 886 females, and 309 males. The participants' ages ranged from 25 to 60 years. The Financial Anxiety Scale, Work-Related Flow Inventory, and Qualitative Job Insecurity Measures were found valid and reliable. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the associations. As hypothesized, the results indicated that job insecurity was positively related to financial anxiety, work-related flow was negatively associated with financial anxiety, and work-related flow mediated the relationship between job insecurity and financial anxiety. All these associations were significant regardless of gender, age, marital status, sector of employment, income, self-rated health, and COVID-19 infection status. Further research is needed to understand the impact of job insecurity on financial anxiety in-depth through the paths of work-related flow, especially in the midst of COVID-19.

Highlights

The current situation of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has increased levels of anxiety and depression in individuals (U.S Census Bureau, 2020)
This study sought to investigate the relationship between job insecurity (JINS), work-related flow (WOLF), and financial anxiety (FAS)
Using G∗Power, this sample size corresponded to a sampling power of 0.982, which according to Wywial (2015) and Kyriazos (2018) was more than the minimum prescribed power of 0.80

Summary

Introduction

The current situation of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has increased levels of anxiety and depression in individuals (U.S Census Bureau, 2020). The emergence of anxiety has been shown to be due to the pandemic’s negative impacts on the economy and workforce. Concerning the transmission of COVID-19, some recommendations are given by different health organizations regarding social distancing to reduce the spread of virus, which has directly or indirectly affected businesses These health organizations recommended closing unnecessary businesses. Even developed countries have faced economic downturn, i.e., the U.S.A. employment rate fell enormously, and over 41 million Americans became unemployed between February and May 2020 (Congressional Budget Office, 2020). Saudi Arabia faced problems in economic productivity; the unemployment rate hit 15.4% by September 2020 (Barbuscia, 2020)

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