Decent Work and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Un-/Under-employed Workers

Taylor Nicole Roberts; Marie S. Hammond; Megan M. Morrison; Tiffany R. Williams; Esther M. Lynch; Artenzia C. Young-Seigler

doi:10.5334/spo.43

Figures & Tables

Table 1

Types of Impacts in the USA During the First Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

GENERAL IMPACT	WORK-RELATED IMPACT
Limited Information Available for Effective Decision-Making	Government/Workplace Shutdowns
Continuous Changes in Safety Measures	School/Daycare Closures
Inconsistencies in Implementing Public Health Mandates	Rolling Layoffs and Furloughs due to Changing Work Climate
Extensive Quarantine Measures	Individuals in Essential Jobs were Expected to Continue to Work
Isolation & Disconnection	Lack of Childcare due to Shutdowns

Conceptual Model: Model of Factors Impacting the Mental Health Outcomes of Unemployed and Underemployed Workers in the USA.

Table 2

Sociodemographic Characteristics of the Participants.

SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS	n	%	SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS	n	%
Gender			Education
Male	95	47.5	High School Graduate	26	13.0
Female	98	49.0	AAS or Technical/Trade School	27	13.5
Other or No Response	7	3.5	Bachelor’s Degree	91	45.5
Race/Ethnicity			Master’s Degree	42	21.0
African Am./Black	33	16.5	Other or No Response	14	7.0
Asian Am./Asian	20	10.0	Current Social Class
White/European	136	68.0	Lower Class	25	12.5
Hispanic/Latino or Other	11	5.5	Working Class	50	25.0
Marital Status			Middle Class	108	54.0
Married/Domestic Partnership	110	55.0	Upper Middle Class or Other	17	8.5
Single	74	37.0
Divorced, Other, or No Response	16	8.0

[i] Note: AAS = Associate of Applied Science Degree.

Table 3

Employment Status of Variables.

SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS	n	%	SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS	n	%
Employment			Capacity to Work
Part-Time	125	62.5	0%	46	23.0
Unemployed	75	37.5	1 – 10%	9	4.5
Work Status Reason			11 – 20%	26	13.0
Unable to Work Full-Time	64	32.0	21 – 30%	61	30.5
Do Not Want Full-Time Work	58	29.0	31 – 40%	32	16.0
Involuntary or No Response	78	39.0	41% or More	12	6.0
			No Response	14	7.0

Table 4

Descriptive Statistics & Correlations between Decent Work and Mental Health.

SCALE LABELS (TOTAL)	N	M	SD	DWS	PCL-5
DWS	200	66.57	14.45	–	–
PCL-5	200	49.45	15.79	0.419**	–
DASS-21	200	42.06	33.96	–0.234**	–0.115

[i] Note: ** = p < 0.001 (2-tailed).

Table 5

Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way ANOVA Examining Mental Health Differences for Protective Factors Assessments.

MEASURES	MENTAL HEALTH DIAGNOSES	M	SD	F(2, 197)	η²
Social Support (MSPSS)	No Diagnoses	67.06^a	15.52	4.36*	0.042
	One Diagnosis	62.44^ab	13.78
	Two or More Diagnoses	57.81^b	17.36
Resilience (CD-RISC)	No Diagnoses	68.70^a	21.30	9.21***	0.085
	One Diagnosis	65.01^a	17.11
	Two or More Diagnoses	52.82^b	21.49
Self-Esteem (RSE)	No Diagnoses	22.37^a	7.38	25.60***	0.206
	One Diagnosis	17.59^b	4.67
	Two or More Diagnoses	13.59^c	6.86

[i] Note. Means in the same column that have no superscript in common are significantly different at the p = 0.05 level.

* p <.05. *** p < .001.

Table 6

Mean, Standard Deviations, and Post Hoc Analysis Differences on Mental Health, Economic Constraint, and Protective Factors by Employment Status (Total).

MEASURES	M	SD	F(5,192)	η²
Depression, Anxiety, and Stress (DASS-21)	42.14	33.95	11.126***	0.225
Posttraumatic Stress (PCL-5)	49.35	15.73	1.076	0.027
Economic Constraints (ECS)	22.35	8.83	6.732***	0.149
Resilience (CD-RISC)	62.86	19.92	1.366	0.034
Social Prestige (DSIS-SP)	46.17	11.04	6.482***	0.144
Social Support (MSPSS)	62.34	15.33	0.852	0.022
Self-Esteem (RSE)	17.70	6.60	6.334***	0.142

[i] *** p < .001.

Table 7

Descriptive Statistics and Post-hoc Tests for ECS, DASS-21, RSE, and DSIS-SP by Employment Status Levels (Scheffé).

GROUP	N	ECS		DASS-21		RSE		DSIS-SP
GROUP	N	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
PT-O-NL	46	17.52^a	8.69	26.22^a	30.55	21.57^a	5.75	45.18^ab	7.86
PT-S-NL	18	22.22^ab	9.81	30.23^ab	29.99	19.39^ab	7.06	45.50^ab	11.19
U-NL	28	20.21^ab	10.05	24.34^ab	27.46	18.00^ab	8.70	42.64^b	9.10
PT-O-L	37	25.97^b	6.00	61.51^b	30.15	16.15^b	5.05	51.52^ab	12.15
U-L	47	23.17^ab	8.68	46.13^ab	30.30	15.66^b	6.28	41.91^b	11.40
PT-S-L	22	27.45^b	5.10	66.73^b	33.42	14.78^b	3.38	53.41^a	10.01

[i] Note. Groups: PT-S-NL = Part Time, Self-Employed, Not Looking for Employment; PT-O-NL = Part Time, Other-Employed, Not Looking for Employment; U-NL = Unemployed, Not Looking for Employment; PT-O-L = Part-Time, Other-Employed, Looking for Employment; U-L = Unemployed, Looking for Employment; PT-S-L = Part-Time, Self-Employed, Looking for Employment.

Note. Means in the same column that have no superscript in common are significantly different at the p = 0.05 level.

Table 8

Sequential Multiple Regression of Social Prestige, Resilience, and Economic Constraints on Perceptions of Decent Work in Un-/Under-employed Participants.

VARIABLES	DSIS-SP	CD-RISC	ECS	B	ß	95% CONFIDENCE INTERVAL FOR ß		RELATIVE WEIGHT (sr²)
VARIABLES	DSIS-SP	CD-RISC	ECS	B	ß	LOWER BOUND	UPPER BOUND	RELATIVE WEIGHT (sr²)
DSIS-SP	–	0.527	0.031	0.593**	0.451	0.421	0.765	0.32**
CD-RISC	0.527	–	-0.158	0.167**	0.231	0.071	0.263	0.05**
ECS	0.031	0.013	–	-0.199*	-0.121	-0.385	-0.014	0.01*
M	46.20	62.99	22.34
SD	10.99	19.98	8.79
								R² = .39
							Adjusted	R² = .38
								R = .62*

[i] *p < .05. **p < .001.