Faculty Publications

An Island Of Sanity During Covid-19 Pandemic: Does Pet Attachment Support Buffer Employees’ Stress Due To Job Insecurity?

Document Type

Article

Keywords

behavioral strain reactions, Job insecurity, pet attachment support, psychological strain reactions, stress

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Psychological Reports

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.

Department

Department of Management

Original Publication Date

1-1-2022

DOI of published version

10.1177/00332941221109105

Link to Full Text

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