Abstract
Objectives: Initially, we analyzed relations between the challenging working conditions of flight attendants with symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. As the COVID-19 pandemic plunged airlines into an unprecedented crisis, its impact on the mental health of flying cabin crews became the focus of a second survey.Methods: Flight attendants were surveyed online with DASS-21 in May 2019 (N = 105; sample 1) and April 2020 (N = 1119; sample 2), complemented with questions about working conditions (in 2019) and existential fears and fear of job loss (in 2020).Results: Sample 1 revealed that symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress highly correlated with the subjective assessment of working conditions, but not with objectifiable parameters. Sample 2 showed significant positive correlations between existential fears and fear of job loss with depression, anxiety and stress. Crew members, grounded in April 2020, showed significantly higher scores in depression and stress, while still flying individuals had more clinically relevant symptoms of anxiety. Mean value comparisons between sample 1 and 2 in DASS-21 revealed a significant increase in symptoms at the time of crisis with effect sizes of d = 0.63 for depression, d = 0.26 for anxiety, and d = 0.52 for stress. The incidence of clinically relevant symptoms among the respondents increased from 8 to 23% (depression), from 6 to 14% (anxiety), and from 8 to 24% (stress).Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated work restrictions coincide with severe impairment of mental health of flying cabin crews, consistent with a mental health protecting function of labor.
Highlights
During their work, flight attendants are exposed to special health-related challenges
Work-related emotionality is reflected in specific requirements, for example, in the cultural and linguistic differences between cabin crews and passengers, with emotional exhaustion increasing with age (Chang and Ju-Mei, 2009) and with emotional dissonance (Zapf and Holz, 2006)
At the beginning of this study, we assumed that the particular stressors of flight attendants might correlate with an accumulation of psychological problems in this group of employees
Summary
Flight attendants are exposed to special health-related challenges. And colleagues investigated the health status of cabin crews and found significantly more sleep problems, depression, anxiety, and fatigue than in the average population (McNeely et al, 2014, 2018). Cabin crews on international flights suffer less from stress and fatigue than their national colleagues According to Suvanto and Ilmarinen (1989), both cognitive and physical overloads are the beginning of flight-related work stress. Work-related emotionality is reflected in specific requirements, for example, in the cultural and linguistic differences between cabin crews and passengers, with emotional exhaustion increasing with age (Chang and Ju-Mei, 2009) and with emotional dissonance (Zapf and Holz, 2006)
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