The Impacts of the Pandemic Covid-19 on the Psycho-emotional Status of Individuals Employed in Stores: Copying Strategies and Perceptions of Stigma.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: During the pandemic, the immediate adoption of restrictive measures to reduce the spread of the virus, brought into action measures by those responsible for public health issues, such as the shutdown of most economic activities, which also happened for the retail sector. The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of the Pandemic Covid-19 on the psycho-emotional status of individuals employed in Stores, of a municipal district area.

METHODS

The study involved 262 employees working in the shops of the city of Corinth, in Peloponnese prefecture. In addition to the sociodemographic questions, the distributed questionnaire included five psychometric tools/scales (The Fear Scale for COVID-19, the Covid-19 Stigma Questionnaire, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, the Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced (COPE) questionnaire, the Self-Esteem Scale for Anxiety). Data processing and the extraction of statistical results were done using SPSS 25.0 software.

RESULTS

Regarding the status of the respondents in relation to the pandemic, 8.78% stated that they have been sick with coronavirus. For protection against the coronavirus, the respondents stated their habits as a priority. Respondents said they were moderately scared, in general, about the Covid-19 pandemic. However, fear causes them insecurity to some extent and does not lead to extraordinary situations of anxiety and panic. Most of the sample (88.17%) believed that people suffering from COVID-19 can be neighbors of those who do not suffer from this disease. Stigma was observed to differ based on whether one had been ill or vaccinated. Examining the anxiety score about the demographic data of the participants, it emerged that there is a statistically significant difference in the average anxiety score in terms of gender, as well as age. Also, it appears that the strategies of acceptance (5.87), positive perspective and reassessment of things (5.84), planning (5.74), active coping (5.67), and distraction (5.57). Respondents' resilience to escape difficult situations was measured, and the results showed that the degree of personal ability in building resilience is moderate to high.

CONCLUSIONS

It seems that workers were affected by the pandemic as much as other professional groups, such as health professionals.