Mitigating Physiological Responses to Layoff Threat: An Experimental Test of the Efficacy of Two Coping Interventions

The rise and fall of job insecurity during a pandemic: The role of habitual coping

Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic can trigger concerns about loss of employment and changes in work conditions, and thereby increase job insecurity. Yet, little is known about how perceived job insecurity subsequently unfolds over time and how individual differences in habitual coping moderate such a trajectory. Using longitudinal data from 899 US-based participants across 5 waves (March to June 2020), we investigated the trajectory of job insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this trajectory depended on habitual coping strategies such as planning, reappraisal, and distraction. Results from latent growth curve analysis indicated that, on average, job insecurity initially increased and then decreased after signing of the coronavirus stimulus bill, suggesting a pattern of shock followed by adjustment. During the shock phase, habitual use of distraction was related to less increases in job insecurity. Later during the adjustment phase, decreases in job insecurity were more pronounced for individuals with higher habitual use of planning, but were not affected by reappraisal or distraction. Hence, different coping strategies appear beneficial in different phases of adjustment, and the beneficial effect of planning may take time to manifest. Altogether, our study highlights how in the context of extraordinary and uncontrollable events, coping strategies can impact the trajectory of a stressor.

Perceived Serviceability of Outplacement Programs as a Part of Sustainable Human Resource Management

Work and employment are important elements of every working person’s life. If an employee loses his or her job, he or she loses an important and determining part of his or her life. To reduce the negative effects that affect the quality of an employee’s life, outplacement programs were established as a part of sustainable human resource management. Sustainable human resource management emphasises the importance of employee care. Outplacement, for its part, includes support for employees at their last stage in the organization. The main aims of the paper are to present the research results focused on the perceived usefulness of outplacement programs for dismissed employees, to analyse the relationships between the emotions felt by redundancies and other employees as well as the comparison of differences in emotions felt by different generations of dismissed employees. A valid collection tool (research questionnaire) was developed for research purposes and distributed to employees of industrial enterprises in the Slovak Republic. Overall, the research set was composed of n = 692 employees from different generational groups. The research results proved the existence of a relationships between the emotions felt by redundancies and other employees and differences in emotions felt by employees from different generational groups.

Can Gossip Buffer the Effect of Job Insecurity on Workplace Friendships?

Although previous research has documented a host of negative consequences of job insecurity, workplace interpersonal relationships have rarely been considered. This omission might be caused by the application of broad stress theories to the job insecurity literature without taking a nuanced perspective to understand the nature of job insecurity. To address this issue, we conceptualized job insecurity as a threat to employee social acceptance by their employer. This conceptualization, therefore, allows us to apply the multimotive model of social rejection to investigate a previously-overlooked outcome of job insecurity—workplace friendships. Specifically, we investigated the relationship between both job feature insecurity and job loss insecurity with workplace friendships. Based on stress coping theory and the fundamental differences between job feature insecurity and job loss insecurity, we further proposed that employees’ tendency to engage in positive gossip buffers the negative impact of job feature insecurity on workplace friendships, whereas employees’ tendency to engage in negative gossip buffers the negative impact of job loss insecurity on workplace friendships. Data collected from 286 working adults from Mturk supported our hypotheses. Our study opens the door for future research to take a more nuanced approach when examining nontraditional consequences of job insecurity.

Job Insecurity and Mental Health: The Moderating Role of Coping Strategies From a Gender Perspective

Job insecurity is a growing phenomenon, typical of an employment context characterised by high rates of temporary work and unemployment. Previous research has shown a direct relationship between job insecurity and mental health impairment. The present analysis goes into this relationship in depth, studying the moderating role of coping strategies and predicting that men and women implement different types of strategies. A sample of 1.008 workers is analysed, 588 women and 420 men. The Tobin CSI scale was used to analyse the coping strategies, in addition to JIS-8 to assess job insecurity, the MOS Perceived Social Support Survey and the GHQ-28 test to evaluate mental health. Then, a hierarchical linear regression was designed to study the moderating role of 8 coping strategies of job insecurity and 4 mental health subscales in men and women, separately. Results illustrate that coping strategies play a moderating role in the relationship between job insecurity and mental health. However, the aggravating role of disengagement coping strategies is more relevant than the buffering role of engagement strategies. On the other hand, women implement a greater number of coping strategies, with more positive results for mental health. Also, in the relationship between job insecurity and mental health the most important strategies are the ones related to social interaction inside and outside an organisation, and these are the main ones used by women. It therefore follows that strengthening rich social relationships inside and outside the working environment is a guarantee of well-being.

Job Insecurity and Mental Health: The Moderating Role of Coping Strategies From a Gender Perspective

Job insecurity is a growing phenomenon, typical of an employment context characterised by high rates of temporary work and unemployment. Previous research has shown a direct relationship between job insecurity and mental health impairment. The present analysis goes into this relationship in depth, studying the moderating role of coping strategies and predicting that men and women implement different types of strategies. A sample of 1.008 workers is analysed, 588 women and 420 men. The Tobin CSI scale was used to analyse the coping strategies, in addition to JIS-8 to assess job insecurity, the MOS Perceived Social Support Survey and the GHQ-28 test to evaluate mental health. Then, a hierarchical linear regression was designed to study the moderating role of 8 coping strategies of job insecurity and 4 mental health subscales in men and women, separately. Results illustrate that coping strategies play a moderating role in the relationship between job insecurity and mental health. However, the aggravating role of disengagement coping strategies is more relevant than the buffering role of engagement strategies. On the other hand, women implement a greater number of coping strategies, with more positive results for mental health. Also, in the relationship between job insecurity and mental health the most important strategies are the ones related to social interaction inside and outside an organisation, and these are the main ones used by women. It therefore follows that strengthening rich social relationships inside and outside the working environment is a guarantee of well-being.

Core Self-Evaluations and Individual Strategies of Coping with Unemployment among Displaced Spanish Workers

Unemployment has negative but also positive effects on mental health and general well-being depending on which coping strategies the individual use. Our aim was to determine the contribution of core self-evaluations in explaining the coping strategies of job search and job devaluation, as well as to test the potential moderation effect of job search and mediation effect of job devaluation on the relationship between self core-evaluations and both positive and negative experience of unemployment. One hundred seventy-eight individuals who lost their jobs involuntarily for a longer period than one month completed a questionnaire while attending to employment office. Results show that there is a significant relation between core-self evaluations and job devaluation (.37**). Furthermore, core-self evaluations were positively related to positive experience of unemployment (r = .31; p < .01) and negatively related to negative experience of unemployment (r = .60; p < .01). Moreover, self-core evaluations predicted both coping with unemployment strategies (job devaluation; β = .26; p < .01 and job search β = .19; p < .05). However, job search did not moderate the relationship between core self-evaluations and experience of unemployment. But, individuals with a longer duration of the current period of unemployment and higher core self-evaluations had a more positive experience of unemployment, and job devaluation partially mediated this relation (SE = .002; p = .038). These results imply that programs interventions should include the improvement of core self-evaluations and the positive experience of unemployed people.

Can galvanic skin conductance be used as an objective indicator of children's anxiety in the dental setting?

Background

Assessment of procedural distress is essential at assisting children during invasive dental treatments. This study aimed to determine the validity and reliability of galvanic skin response as a measure for assessment of dental anxiety in children.

Material and Methods

151 children, aged 5-7 years, participated in this study. Similar dental treatments were rendered to all subjects. At the beginning and end of the session, modified child dental anxiety scale (MCDAS), clinical anxiety rating scale (CARS) and galvanic skin response (GSR) were used to determine children’s anxiety.

Results

GSR was significantly correlated with both MCDAS (rs=0.62, p=0.02) and CARS (rs=0.44, p=0.032). The correlation between MCDAS and CARS was also significant (rs = 0.9, P<0.001). Anxiety decreased during the session in both GSR (rs=0.52, p=0.001) and MCDAS scales (rs=0.77, p=0.001). CARS also showed a reduction between the initial and second assessment, but it was not statistically significant (rs=0.12, P=0.36).

Conclusions

The findings suggest that GSR is a reliable and valid measure for assessment of children’s dental anxiety in the clinical context. GSR may help to identify clinically anxious children before dental treatment to provide appropriate interventions.

Key words:Dental anxiety, reliability, validity, galvanic skin response.