Workers' individual and dyadic coping with the COVID-19 health emergency: A cross cultural study

Silvia Donato; Agostino Brugnera; Roberta Adorni; Sara Molgora; Eleonora Reverberi; Claudia Manzi; Maria Angeli; Anna Bagirova; Veronica Benet-Martinez; Liberato Camilleri; Frances Camilleri-Cassar; Evi Hatzivarnava Kazasi; Gerardo Meil; Maria Symeonaki; Ayça Aksu; Karina Batthyany; Ruta Brazienė; Natalia Genta; Annick Masselot; Suzy Morrissey

doi:10.1177/02654075221119066

Workers' individual and dyadic coping with the COVID-19 health emergency: A cross cultural study

J Soc Pers Relat. 2023 Feb;40(2):551-575. doi: 10.1177/02654075221119066. Epub 2022 Sep 16.

Authors

Silvia Donato^{1

2}, Agostino Brugnera³, Roberta Adorni², Sara Molgora^{1

2}, Eleonora Reverberi^{1

2}, Claudia Manzi^{1

2}, Maria Angeli⁴, Anna Bagirova⁵, Veronica Benet-Martinez⁶, Liberato Camilleri⁷, Frances Camilleri-Cassar⁸, Evi Hatzivarnava Kazasi⁹, Gerardo Meil¹⁰, Maria Symeonaki¹¹, Ayça Aksu¹², Karina Batthyany¹³, Ruta Brazienė¹⁴, Natalia Genta¹³, Annick Masselot¹⁵, Suzy Morrissey¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Family Studies and Research University Centre, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
² Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
³ Department of Human and Social Sciences, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy.
⁴ Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, University of Nicosia, Cyprus.
⁵ Department of Sociology and Public Administration Technologies, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation.
⁶ Department of Political and Social Sciences, ICREA & Universidad Pompeu-Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
⁷ Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
⁸ Faculty of Laws, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
⁹ Center for Gender Studies, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece.
¹⁰ Department of Sociology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
¹¹ Department of Social Policy, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece.
¹² Department of Psychology, MEF University, Istanbul, Turkey.
¹³ Department of Sociology, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
¹⁴ Department of Social Policy, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
¹⁵ Faculty of Law, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
¹⁶ Public Policy Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine workers' psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic as a function of their individual coping, dyadic coping, and work-family conflict. We also tested the moderating role of gender and culture in these associations. To achieve this aim, we run HLM analyses on data from 1521 workers cohabiting with a partner, coming from six countries (Italy, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, Greece, and Russia) characterized by various degrees of country-level individualism/collectivism. Across all six countries, findings highlighted that work-family conflict as well as the individual coping strategy social support seeking were associated with higher psychological distress for workers, while the individual coping strategy positive attitude and common dyadic coping were found to be protective against workers' psychological distress. This latter association, moreover, was stronger in more individualistic countries.

Keywords: COVID-19; Individual coping; culture; dyadic coping; work-family conflict.