Employment disruption and wellbeing among young adults : a cross-national study of perceived impact of the COVID-19 lockdown

Li, Lijun (author), Lep, Žan (author), Zupančič, Maja (author)

Young adulthood (18–30 years old) is a crucial period due to its developmental tasks such as career establishment and financial independence. However, young adults’ relative lack of resources makes them vulnerable to employment disruptions (job loss and income loss), which may have both immediate and long-term effects on their financial wellbeing and mental health. The economic impact of COVID-19 restrictions resulted in an increase in unemployment and a decrease in income worldwide, especially for young adults. This study examined to what extent and how job loss and income loss due to the pandemic influenced young adults’ perception of their present financial wellbeing, future financial wellbeing, and psychological wellbeing by using cross-sectional survey data collected from six countries (China, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and the United States). Results showed that the impact of income loss and job loss on all three types of wellbeing were mediated by young adults’ negative perception of the COVID-19 lockdown restriction (i.e., perceived as a misfortune). Cross-country differences existed in the key variables. The association between employment disruptions, young adults’ perception of the COVID-19 lockdown restriction, and wellbeing were equivalent across countries except China. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

• Language: English
• Keywords: employment disruptiont, young adults, COVID-19, perception, wellbeing, employment, finance, cross cultural studies, pandemics, epidemics, coronavirus, psychology, emerging adulthood
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: 22 str.
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-152348
• UDC: 59.922.8-053.81
• ISSN on article: 1573-7780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10902-023-00629-3
• COBISS.SI-ID: 142256131
• Publication date in RUL: 21.11.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of happiness studies
• Publisher: Kluwer
• ISSN: 1573-7780
• COBISS.SI-ID: 513189657

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: zaposlitev, finance, blagostanje, medkulturne študije, pandemije, epidemije, koronavirus, COVID-19, psihologija, prehod v odraslost, mladi odrasli

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P5-0062-2020
• Name: Uporabna razvojna psihologija