Does 'Fear of COVID-19' trigger future career anxiety? An empirical investigation considering depression from COVID-19 as a mediator

Md Shahed Mahmud, Mesbah Uddin Talukder, Sk Mahrufur Rahman, Md Shahed Mahmud, Mesbah Uddin Talukder, Sk Mahrufur Rahman

Abstract

Background: Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the mental health of the people all around the world is severely disrupted.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to identify whether 'Fear of COVID-19' impacted on future workforces' career anxiety at the first place and whether depression from COVID-19 has any indirect effect on 'Fear of COVID-19' and future workforces' career anxiety.

Method: Based on three different scales related to 'Fear of COVID-19', depression and career anxiety, a structured questionnaire was developed and the survey data was collected for this study.

Results: The empirical result of the study reveals that, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 fear, the future workforce is getting anxious about their future career. Again, depression from COVID-19, caused by 'Fear of COVID-19', as a mediator, has a significant indirect impact on the relationship between 'Fear of COVID-19' and future career anxiety, resulting in a full mediation. This means, due to the outbreak of 'Fear of COVID-19' people are becoming depressed and anxious about their future career which is creating a long-term negative effect on human psychology.

Conclusion: These research findings will be a major tool for the policymakers, as well as the human resource planning professionals, to sketch plans after COVID-19 pandemic. This study is a novel work combining the concepts of fear and depression with career anxiety in a pandemic situation like COVID-19, and also assists future researchers in many folds.

Keywords: Fear of COVID-19; career anxiety; depression from COVID-19; structural equation modeling.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Proposed research model.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Source of getting information regarding COVID-19. Source: Output from IBM SPSS.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The results of the full model. Source: Output from IBM AMOS.

References

    1. Abramson A. (2020, February 11). Coronavirus threat escalates fears-and bigotry.
    1. Ahorsu D. K., Lin C., Imani V., Saffari M., Griffiths M. D., Pakpour A. H. (2020). The fear of COVID-19 scale: development and initial validation. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. Advanced online publication. 10.1007/s11469-020-00270-8
    1. Alim S. M. A. H. M. (2018). Bangla (Bengali) translation of the DASS21.
    1. American Psychological Association. (2020. a). Depression.
    1. American Psychological Association. (2020. b). Psychological impact of COVID-19.
    1. Bakker A., Wagner D. (2020). Pandemic: Lessons for today and tomorrow? Educational Studies in Mathematics, 104, 1–4. 10.1007/s10649-020-09946-3
    1. Balaratnasingam S., Janca A. (2006). Mass hysteria revisited. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 19(2), 171–174. 10.1097/01.yco.0000214343.59872.7a
    1. Banerjee D. (2020). The COVID-19 outbreak: Crucial role the psychiatrists can play. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 50, Article 102014.
    1. Barlow D. H. (2000). Unraveling the mysteries of anxiety and its disorders from the perspective of emotion theory. American Psychologist, 55(11), 1247–1263. 10.1037/0003-066X.55.11.1247
    1. Barlow D. H. (2002). Anxiety and its disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic. The Guilford Press.
    1. Barlow D. H., Chorpita B. F., Turovsky J. (1996). Fear, panic, anxiety, and disorders of emotion. In Hope D. A. (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1995: Perspectives on Anxiety, Panic, and Fear (pp. 251–328). University of Nebraska Press.
    1. BBC . (2020). Coronavirus: Worst economic crisis since 1930s depression, IMF says. Coronavirus Pandemic.
    1. Beck A. T., Emery G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of anxiety and phobic disorders. Center for Cognitive therapy.
    1. Bora K., Das D., Barman B., Borah P. (2018). Are internet videos useful sources of information during global public health emergencies? A case study of YouTube videos during the 2015–16 Zika virus pandemic. Pathogens and Global Health, 112(6), 320–328. 10.1080/20477724.2018.1507784
    1. Bouton M. E., Mineka S., Barlow D. H. (2001). A modern learning theory perspective on the etiology of panic disorder. Psychological Review, 108(1), Article 4.
    1. Brooks S. K., Webster R. K., Smith L. E., Woodland L., Wessely S., Greenberg N., Rubin G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet, 395(10227), 912–920. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8
    1. Brown T. A., Chorpita B. F., Korotitsch W., Barlow D. H. (1997). Psychometric properties of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) in clinical samples. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35(1), 79–89. 10.1016/S0005-7967(96)00068-X
    1. Charles G., Anderson-Nathe B. (2020). Uncertainty in the time of coronavirus. Child & Youth Services, 41, 1–2. 10.1080/0145935X.2020.1753377
    1. Cherry K. (2019). Overview of the 6 major theories of emotion.
    1. Coibion O., Gorodnichenko Y., Weber M. (2020). Labor markets during the COVID-19 crisis: A preliminary view (National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, No. 27017). 10.3386/w27017
    1. Dobson K. S. (1985). The relationship between anxiety and depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 5(4), 307–324. 10.1016/0272-7358(85)90010-8
    1. Duffin E. (2020, April 28). Impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the global economy: Statistics & facts.
    1. Epstein S. (1985). Anxiety, arousal, and the self-concept. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 7(1–4), 265–305. 10.3109/01612848509009458
    1. Gaskin J., Lim J. (2016). Model fit measures. AMOS Plugin.
    1. Goodman P. S. (2020). Why the global recession could last a long time.
    1. Goyal K., Chauhan P., Chhikara K., Gupta P., Singh M. P. (2020). Fear of COVID 2019: First suicidal case in India ! Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 49, Article 101989. 10.1016/j.ajp.2020.101989
    1. Guan W.-J., Ni Z.-Y., Hu Y., Liang W.-H., Ou C.-Q., He J.-X., , . . . Zhong N.-S. (2020). Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(18), 1708–1720. 10.1056/NEJMoa2002032
    1. Hair J. F., Jr., Black W. C., Babin B. J., Anderson R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage Learning, EMEA.
    1. Holshue M. L., DeBolt C., Lindquist S., Lofy K. H., Wiesman J., Bruce H., , . . . Pillai S. K. (2020). First case of 2019 novel coronavirus in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(10), 929–936. 10.1056/NEJMoa2001191
    1. Hornak J., Gillingham B. (1980). Career indecision: A self-defeating behavior. Personnel & Guidance Journal, 59(4), 252–253. 10.1002/j.2164-4918.1980.tb00543.x
    1. Hu L.-t., Bentler P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. 10.1080/10705519909540118
    1. Izard C. E. (1971). The face of emotion. Appleton-Century-Crofts.
    1. Izard C. E. (1977). Human emotions (1st ed.). Springer.
    1. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2020, April 24). KFF health tracking poll: Late April 2020: Coronavirus, social distancing, and contact tracing.
    1. Kanadiya M. K., Sallar A. M. (2011). Preventive behaviors, beliefs, and anxieties in relation to the swine flu outbreak among college students aged 18–24 years. Journal of Public Health, 19(2), 139–145. 10.1007/s10389-010-0373-3
    1. Kaplan D. M., Brown D. (1987). The role of anxiety in career indecisiveness. The Career Development Quarterly, 36(2), 148–162. 10.1002/j.2161-0045.1987.tb00786.x
    1. Kim Y., Dykema J., Stevenson J., Black P., Moberg D. P. (2019). Straightlining: Overview of measurement, comparison of indicators, and effects in mail–web mixed-mode surveys. Social Science Computer Review, 37(2), 214–233. 10.1177/0894439317752406
    1. Klerman G. L. (1977). Anxiety and depression. In Burrows G. D. (Ed.), Handbook of studies on depression (pp. 49–68). Elsevier.
    1. Lai J., Ma S., Wang Y., Cai Z., Hu J., Wei N., , . . . Hu S. (2020). Factors associated with mental health outcomes among health care workers exposed to coronavirus disease 2019. JAMA Network Open, 3(3), Article e203976. 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.3976
    1. Le M. T. H., Tran T. D., Holton S., Nguyen H. T., Wolfe R., Fisher J. (2017). Reliability, convergent validity and factor structure of the DASS-21 in a sample of Vietnamese adolescents. PLOS ONE, 12(7), Article e0180557. 10.1371/journal.pone.0180557
    1. Lee S. A. (2020). Coronavirus Anxiety Scale: A brief mental health screener for COVID-19 related anxiety. Death Studies, 44, 393–401. 10.1080/07481187.2020.1748481
    1. Lee S. A., Jobe M. C., Mathis A. A. (2020). Mental health characteristics associated with dysfunctional coronavirus anxiety. Psychological Medicine. 10.1017/S003329172000121X
    1. Lee S. M., Kang W. S., Cho A.-R., Kim T., Park J. K. (2018). Psychological impact of the 2015 MERS outbreak on hospital workers and quarantined hemodialysis patients. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 87, 123–127. 10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.10.003
    1. Lin C.-Y. (2020). Social reaction toward the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Social Health and Behavior, 3(1), 1–2. 10.4103/shb.shb_11_20
    1. Lovibond P. F., Lovibond S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(3), 335–343.
    1. Malhotra N. K., Dash S. (2016). Marketing research: An applied orientation (7th ed.). Pearson India Education Services.
    1. Mamun M. A., Griffiths M. D. (2020). First COVID-19 suicide case in Bangladesh due to fear of COVID-19 and xenophobia: Possible suicide prevention strategies. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 51, Article 102073. 10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102073
    1. Martin E., & BLOOMBERG. (2020). ‘This crisis is like no other’: Coronavirus recession will likely be worst since the great depression, predicts IMF.
    1. Mattioli A. V., Ballerini Puviani M. (2020). Lifestyle at time of COVID-19: How could quarantine affect cardiovascular risk. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 14, 240–242. 10.1177/1559827620918808
    1. Medical News Today . (2020. a). COVID-19: How long is this likely to last?
    1. Medical News Today . (2020. b). What is depression and what can I do about it?
    1. Menickella B. (2020, April 8). COVID-19 worldwide: The pandemic’s impact on the economy and markets.
    1. Moghanibashi-Mansourieh A. (2020). Assessing the anxiety level of Iranian general population during COVID-19 outbreak. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 51, Article 102076. 10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102076
    1. Morath E., Guilford G. (2020, May 7). Unemployment claims data point to record wave of job loss. Economy.
    1. Mostert K., Botha H. (2013). Significant predictors associated with the career uncertainty of university students. South African Journal of Higher Education, 27(3), 501–521.
    1. Oxford Economics. (2020). Coronavirus is crushing world trade.
    1. Özdin S., Bayrak Özdin Ş. (2020). Levels and predictors of anxiety, depression and health anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic in Turkish society: The importance of gender. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. Advanced online publication. 10.1177/0020764020927051
    1. Pappas S. (2020). How will people react to the new financial crisis?
    1. Parkitny L., McAuley J. (2010). The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Journal of Physiotherapy, 56(3), 204. 10.1016/S1836-9553(10)70030-8
    1. Perez M. (2020). The economic hit from coronavirus will be worst since the great depression, IMF warns.
    1. Plutchik R. (1980). Measurement implications of a psychoevolutionary theory of emotions. In Blankstein K. R., Pliner P., Polivy J. (Eds.), Assessment and modification of emotional behavior (pp. 47–69). Springer.
    1. Psychology Foundation of Australia. (2018). Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS).
    1. Riley C. (2020). 30 days that brought the world to the brink of a depression.
    1. Rubin G. J., Amlôt R., Page L., Wessely S. (2009). Public perceptions, anxiety, and behaviour change in relation to the swine flu outbreak: Cross sectional telephone survey. BMJ, 339, Article b2651. 10.1136/bmj.b2651
    1. Rubin G. J., Wessely S. (2020). The psychological effects of quarantining a city. BMJ, 368, Article m313. 10.1136/bmj.m313
    1. Sarkar S. (2020). Economic fallouts from Covid-19.
    1. Sharma M., Yadav K., Yadav N., Ferdinand K. C. (2017). Zika virus pandemic – Analysis of Facebook as a social media health information platform. American Journal of Infection Control, 45(3), 301–302. 10.1016/j.ajic.2016.08.022
    1. Shea T. L., Tennant A., Pallant J. F. (2009). Rasch model analysis of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS). BMC Psychiatry, 9(1), Article 21. 10.1186/1471-244X-9-21
    1. Sheppard D., McCormick M., Raval A., Brower D., Lockett H. (2020, April 21). US oil price below zero for first time in history. The Financial Times.
    1. Spielberger C. D., Gorsuch R. L., Lushene R. E. (1970). Manual for the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. Consulting Psychologists Press.
    1. Strong P. (1990). Epidemic psychology: A model. Sociology of Health & Illness, 12(3), 249–259. 10.1111/1467-9566.ep11347150
    1. Super D. E. (1980). A life-span, life-space approach to career development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 16(3), 282–298.
    1. Taylor S. (2019). The psychology of pandemics: Preparing for the next global outbreak of infectious disease. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
    1. Tsai C.-T., Hsu H., Hsu Y.-C. (2017). Tourism and hospitality college students’ career anxiety: Scale development and validation. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 29(4), 158–165. 10.1080/10963758.2017.1382365
    1. Tucci V., Moukaddam N., Meadows J., Shah S., Galwankar S. C., Kapur G. B. (2017). The forgotten plague: Psychiatric manifestations of Ebola, Zika, and emerging infectious diseases. Journal of Global Infectious Diseases, 9(4), 151–156. 10.4103/jgid.jgid_66_17
    1. UN News . (2020). COVID-19: Impact could cause equivalent of 195 million job losses, says ILO chief.
    1. Walker J. (2016). Civil society’s role in a public health crisis. Issues in Science and Technology, 32(4), Article 43.
    1. The Wall Street Journal . (2020). Why fully recovering from coronavirus might take longer than expected: WSJ Video.
    1. Walsh J. (Producer). (2013). Theories of emotion. Processing the environment.
    1. Weir K. (2020, March 16). Seven crucial research findings that can help people deal with COVID-19.
    1. World Health Organization. (2010, February 24). What is a pandemic? Emergencies preparedness, response.
    1. World Health Organization. (2020. a, May 28). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
    1. World Health Organization. (2020. b). Mental health and psychosocial considerations during the COVID-19 outbreak.
    1. World Health Organization. (2020. c, April 17). Q&A on coronaviruses (COVID-19). Q&A detail.
    1. World Health Organization. (2020. d, April 27). WHO timeline – COVID-19.
    1. Wiseman P., Crutsinger M. (2020, April 14). The coronavirus recession could be the worst downturn since the great depression.
    1. Xiang Y.-T., Yang Y., Li W., Zhang L., Zhang Q., Cheung T., Ng C. H. (2020). Timely mental health care for the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak is urgently needed. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(3), 228–229. 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30046-8
    1. Yetgin D., Benligiray S. (2019). The effect of economic anxiety and occupational burnout levels of tour guides on their occupational commitment. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 24(4), 333–347. 10.1080/10941665.2018.1564681
    1. Zung W. W. K. (1965). A Self-Rating Depression Scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12(1), 63–70. 10.1001/archpsyc.1965.01720310065008

Source: PubMed

Sponsoren und Mitarbeiter

Krankheiten

Drogeninterventionen

3
Abonnieren