An island of sanity during COVID-19 pandemic: Does pet attachment support buffer employees' stress due to job insecurity?

Authors

Min Maggie Wan, Texas State University - San Marcos
Thomas K. Kelemen, Kansas State University
Yejun Zhang, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
Samuel H. Matthews, University of Northern Iowa

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2023

Abstract

Drawing on the transactional theory of stress, the current study investigates whether employee job insecurity triggers employee behavioral strain reactions (i.e., alcohol use, marijuana use, and cigarette use) and psychological strain reactions (i.e., emotional exhaustion and depression) through stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we integrate social support theory and expect the moderating role of pet attachment support in the above relationships. By collecting two-wave data from 187 employees with pets in the United States, we found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, stress mediated the relationships between job insecurity and predicted behavioral and psychological reactions. Moreover, pet attachment support buffered the relationships between stress and these behavioral and psychological strain reactions (all except cigarette use). Pet attachment support also alleviated the conditional indirect effects job insecurity had on the two types of strain reactions via stress. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this study.

Comments

Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941221109105

Recommended Citation

Wan, M., Kelemen, T.K., Zhang, Y. and Matthews, S.H., 2023. An island of sanity during COVID-19 pandemic: Does pet attachment support buffer employees’ stress due to job insecurity?. Psychological reports, 126(6), pp.2621-2647. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941221109105

Publication Title

Psychological reports

DOI

10.1177/00332941221109105