Coping Methods and Satisfaction with Working from Home in Academic Settings during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Jimmy Stephen Munobwa (), Fereshteh Ahmadi, Saeid Zandi, Natalie Davidsson and Sharareh Akhavan
Additional contact information
Jimmy Stephen Munobwa: Department of Social Work and Criminology, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, University of Gävle, 80176 Gävle, Sweden
Fereshteh Ahmadi: Department of Social Work and Criminology, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, University of Gävle, 80176 Gävle, Sweden
Saeid Zandi: Department of Social Work and Criminology, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, University of Gävle, 80176 Gävle, Sweden
Natalie Davidsson: Faculty of Literacy, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, Salisbury, NC 28146, USA
Sharareh Akhavan: Department of Social Work and Criminology, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, University of Gävle, 80176 Gävle, Sweden

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-13

Abstract: In this paper, we examined how university staff and students coped with challenges related to working or studying from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the level of satisfaction with working from home. An online survey was conducted among faculty, staff, and students at universities in 24 countries ( n = 674). The results show that over 80% of the respondents used multiple coping methods. Three clusters of coping methods were generated through factor analysis: (1) social and health factor, with focus on personal health and the social surrounding, (2) activity factor, i.e., being busy with work or studies, finding up-to-date information about COVID-19, while thinking about what one could do rather than what one could not do, and (3) public health factor, which meant trusting health authorities while avoiding misinformation from sources such as social media. Furthermore, 56% of the respondents were very or somewhat satisfied with working from home. Differences in the methods of coping and satisfaction with working from home highlight the need for employers to prepare for working from home beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: coronavirus; enforced telework; higher education; home confinement; job satisfaction; coping strategies; workplace health; occupational health; telecommuting; remote work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12669/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12669/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12669-:d:932924

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().