COVID-19 countermeasures at the workplace, psychological well-being, and mental health - a nationally representative latent class analysis of Luxembourgish employees

Philipp E Sischka; Alexander F Schmidt; Georges Steffgen

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03377-4

COVID-19 countermeasures at the workplace, psychological well-being, and mental health - a nationally representative latent class analysis of Luxembourgish employees

Curr Psychol. 2022 Jul 14:1-17. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-03377-4. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Philipp E Sischka¹, Alexander F Schmidt², Georges Steffgen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Health and Behavior, University of Luxembourg, Maison des Sciences Humaines, 11, Porte des Sciences, L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
² Institute of Psychology, Social & Legal Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has massively changed people's working lives all over the world. While various studies investigated the effects from pandemic-induced unemployment and telecommuting, there is a lack of research regarding the impact of workplace COVID-19 countermeasures on well-being and mental health for employees who are still working on site. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of workplace COVID-19 countermeasures in organizations in Luxembourg. A person-centered approach was applied in order to explore how employees' psychological well-being and health (i.e., general psychological well-being, vigor, work satisfaction, work-related burnout, somatic complaints, fear of COVID-19 infection) are impacted by organizational countermeasures and whether there are certain employee groups that are less protected by these. Results of a latent class analysis revealed four different classes (Low level of countermeasures, Medium level of countermeasures, High level of countermeasures, High level of countermeasures low distance). Employees working in a healthcare setting were more likely than employees working in a non-healthcare setting to be members of the High level of countermeasures low distance class. Class membership was meaningfully associated with all well-being outcomes. Members of the High level of countermeasures class showed the highest level of well-being, whereas Members of the Low level of countermeasures class and the High level of countermeasures low distance class showed the lowest level of well-being. Policy makers and organizations are recommended to increase the level of COVID-19 countermeasures as an adjunctive strategy to prevent and mitigate adverse mental health and well-being outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03377-4.

Keywords: Infection control; Occupational health; Organizational COVID-19 countermeasures; SARS-CoV-2; Well-being.