Examining the relationship between fear of COVID-19, intolerance for uncertainty, and cyberloafing: A mediational model

Leveraging a Global Partnership to Address COVID-19-Related Mental Health Challenges

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected nurses globally. As frontline workers, nurses faced increased responsibilities amid challenges such as isolation, infection risks, family obligations and disrupted social support systems. Coping with these challenges was associated with adverse mental health outcomes.

AIM/QUESTION

This perspective paper examines a collaboration between two schools of nursing in the United States and India to address these mental health challenges.

METHODS

Faculty from both institutions identified key mental health topics, leading to five webinars that delved into topics such as acute and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on nurse mental health, coping mechanisms, caregiving responsibilities and children's needs during the pandemic.

RESULTS

Impressively, over 11,000 nurses from 60 countries engaged, fostering a global platform for sharing evidence-based knowledge, experiences and strategies.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

This partnership exemplifies the value of international collaboration. By pooling resources and expertise across cultural contexts, the initiative not only disseminated crucial knowledge but also cultivated a sense of global community among nurses. The success of this collaboration underscores the potential of such global partnerships for healthcare institutions worldwide, offering avenues to share best practices and enhance support systems for nurses confronting similar crises globally.

The Association Between Intolerance of Uncertainty and Mobile Phone Addiction Among Overseas Chinese Students During COVID-19: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Stress and Rumination

Purpose

This study investigated the mechanism underlying the association between intolerance of uncertainty and mobile phone addiction among Chinese overseas students during the COVID-19 pandemic by examining the mediating roles of perceived stress and rumination.

Patients and Methods

An online questionnaire survey was distributed via social media platforms popular in mainland China. The items collected demographic information and assessed intolerance of uncertainty, perceived stress, rumination, and mobile phone addiction. A total of 249 respondents completed the questionnaire.

Results

The findings suggest a considerably high risk of mobile phone addiction in the study period among overseas Chinese students, as three-fourths of the participants may have been susceptible to mobile phone addiction according to the suggested cut-off point of the Chinese version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Form. Intolerance of uncertainty showed a significant positive direct effect on mobile phone addiction. The mediation analyses suggest that intolerance of uncertainty affected mobile phone addiction mainly through three pathways: the mediating effect of perceived stress, the mediating effect of rumination, and the chain mediating effect of perceived stress and rumination.

Conclusion

This study enhances understanding of mobile phone addiction among Chinese overseas students and suggests the mediating roles of rumination and perceived stress in the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and mobile phone addiction. The study also provides suggestions for interventions among Chinese students overseas.

Challenge-obstacle stressors and cyberloafing among higher vocational education students: the moderating role of smartphone addiction and Maladaptive

The start of higher vocational education and training is a new stage for students with a challenge between theoretical classes and the new expectations and demands of companies during the internship period. To understand some of the implications of stress on cyberloafing, we can distinguish between stress perceived as an obstacle that can be overcome - challenge stress - or as a threat that can block work performance - obstacle stress - and stress perceived as an obstacle that can be overcome - challenge stress - or as a threat that can block work performance - obstacle stress-. The aim of this research is to find out the relationships between challenge-obstacle stress in Cyberloafing, as well as the moderating effect of Smartphone Addiction and Maladaptive. In this study, the Challenge-Hindrance Stressors, Smartphone addiction scale-short version (SAS-SV) instrument, the Maladaptive subscale of the Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and Cyberloafing were applied to 403 upper-level vocational training students from different secondary schools in all provinces of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain, distributed throughout the provinces that make up this autonomous community. The findings show that students' challenge stressors do not increase Cyberloafing, enabling them to cope with the academic demands and work challenges during the theory and internship period. On the contrary, obstacle stressors generate stressful situations that undermine the acquisition of objectives and development of academic competences. In our research we observe that challenge-obstacle stressors have a disparate influence on cyberloafing. Challenge stressors are negatively related to Maladaptive. The same is not true for obstacle stressors.

Intolerance of uncertainty and mental health in China "Post-pandemic" age: The mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation

The Chinese government adjusted its national epidemic prevention and control policy in December 2022 after the worldwide declaration of COVID-19 as a common influenza. After the policy adjustment, there has been widespread infection in China, which has brought a lot of uncertainty to the lives and studies of Chinese university students. This study focused on the impact of the intolerance of uncertainty for COVID-19 (IUC) on the emotional and mental health of college students in China "Post-pandemic" age. This study examined the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation (DER) between IUC and mental health (MH). 1,281 university students in China were surveyed using the intolerance of uncertainty for COVID-19 scale, the difficulties in emotion regulation scale and the mental health scale. A structural equation model was used to test the hypothesis model, and it was shown that IUC had a significant negative effect on the MH of college students and a significant positive effect on the DER. DER had a significant negative effect on the MH, and DER had a complete mediation effect between IUC and MH. The findings of this study enrich our understanding of the influencing factors of mental health of university students under the background of post-epidemic in China, and provide practical reference for universities on how to prevent mental health problems under the current uncertain environment in China.

Examining generational differences as a moderator of extreme-context perception and its impact on work alienation organizational outcomes: Implications for the workplace and remote work transformation

There is no doubt that extreme contexts (e.g., war zones and pandemics) represent substantial disruptions that force many companies to rethink the way they do business. With so much of the workforce now working remotely and concerns about resulting work alienation, we must ask this question: How can this be translated into the generational divide in workplaces based in extreme contexts? Using COVID-19 as an example trigger of extreme-context experience, therefore, we investigate generation as a moderator of the effects of extreme-context perception upon anxiety leading to alienation with subsequent behavioral outcomes on job insecurity, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). A time-lagged survey procedure yielded 219 valid responses from a three-generation sample of employees working in multiple service organizations. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Our analysis suggested that intense extreme-context perception led to elevated anxiety and alienation, which, in turn, heightened job insecurity and worsened job satisfaction and OCB outcomes. Finally, during the experience of extreme-context times, generation was found to moderate our model, such that both Generation Y and Generation Z experienced higher anxiety due to extreme-context perception and hence higher job insecurity due to alienation compared with Generation X respondents. Our results endorse the criticality of implementing agile and generationally non-sectarian management for effectively functioning generationally diverse workforces in pandemic times.

Lessons on employees' digital resilience from COVID-19-induced transitions to remote work – a mixed methods study

Purpose

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees had to switch to remote work. While some adjusted successfully to this transition, others have struggled. Leveraging information systems (IS) to adjust to major exogenous shocks is called digital resilience. The purpose of this paper is to understand what we can learn about employees' digital resilience from externally enforced transitions to remote work.

Design/methodology/approach

As digital resilience is challenging to measure, this study uses an embedded mixed methods approach. The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of 40 employees' statements on their remote work experience during the first six months of the pandemic and complemented these findings with scale-based digital resilience scores.

Findings

The authors find that employees' digital resilience largely depends on the amount of technical equipment and support they receive from their organizations as well as their ability and willingness to learn how to adequately use and communicate through information and communication technologies. Being self-disciplined and self-responsible positively affects digital resilience, while social isolation threatens it. Organizations can foster digital resilience building by encouraging digital networking, building a digital culture and netiquette, and treating digital resilience as a sociotechnical phenomenon.

Originality/value

This is one of the first empirical studies of digital resilience on a human level. It sheds light on the missing link between IS-enabled resilience and transitions to remote work. Specifically, it provides original insights into its development and manifestation in a remote work context during the COVID-19 pandemic. For researchers, it provides novel guidance on choosing appropriate measurement instruments to capture digital resilience.

Effects of chronic stress on smartphone addiction: A moderated mediation model

Introduction

Based on the compensatory Internet use theory and diathesis-stress model, the present study explores the effects of chronic stress on smartphone addiction (SPA). As intolerance of uncertainty and emotion-related variables are important factors that affect addictive behavior, we explore the mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty and the moderating role of emotion differentiation.

Methods

We conducted a questionnaire survey of 286 participants (13.64% female; M _age = 22.88; SD = 3.77; range = 17-39) on chronic stress, SPA, intolerance of uncertainty, and emotion differentiation. SPSS 28.0 was used to analyze the descriptive statistics and correlations and test the moderated mediation model.

Results

We find that (1) intolerance of uncertainty, SPA, and chronic stress are positively correlated with each other. Positive emotion differentiation is positively correlated with intolerance of uncertainty and negative emotion differentiation. (2) Intolerance of uncertainty plays a mediating role in chronic stress and SPA. (3) Positive emotion differentiation significantly moderates the relationship between chronic stress and SPA. Under the condition of low positive emotion differentiation, chronic stress is more effective in predicting SPA.

Discussion

These findings may contribute to intervention and prevention programs for SPA. Thus, the intervention and prevention of SPA can start from two directions-reduce the intolerance of uncertainty and enhance the ability to experience positive emotion differentiation.

How Fear of External Threats Plays Roles: An Examination of Supervisors' Trait Anger, Abusive Supervision, Subordinate Burnout and CCB

In times of uncertainty, such as during COVID-19, many organizations experience profit decline, and employees develop a fear of external threats, such as organizational layoffs. However, most of the literature focuses on how people's fear influences their well-being. Less is known about how employees' fear of external threats influences their workplace behaviors. The current study proposes that supervisors' fear of external threats stimulates those who are high in trait anger to behave in a more abusive way. Simultaneously, subordinates' fear of external threats would strengthen the positive relationship between abusive supervision and their burnout and compulsory citizenship behaviors (CCB), as fear of external threats constrains their response options to abusive supervision. We tested the hypotheses with a multiwave and multisource survey study (N = 322 dyads) in China, and the results showed that supervisors' fear of external threats strengthened the positive effect of trait anger on abusive supervision. Subordinates' fear of external threats strengthens the positive relationships of abusive supervision with CCB and the mediating effect of abusive supervision in the relationship of supervisors' trait anger with subordinates' CCB. Our study enriches people's understanding of how supervisors' and subordinates' fear of external threats may play roles in workplace behaviors.