How culturally unique are pandemic effects? Evaluating cultural similarities and differences in effects of age, biological sex, and political beliefs on COVID impacts

Despite being bio-epidemiological phenomena, the causes and effects of pandemics are culturally influenced in ways that go beyond national boundaries. However, they are often studied in isolated pockets, and this fact makes it difficult to parse the unique influence of specific cultural psychologies. To help fill in this gap, the present study applies existing cultural theories via linear mixed modeling to test the influence of unique cultural factors in a multi-national sample (that moves beyond Western nations) on the effects of age, biological sex, and political beliefs on pandemic outcomes that include adverse financial impacts, adverse resource impacts, adverse psychological impacts, and the health impacts of COVID. Our study spanned 19 nations (participant N = 14,133) and involved translations into 9 languages. Linear mixed models revealed similarities across cultures, with both young persons and women reporting worse outcomes from COVID across the multi-national sample. However, these effects were generally qualified by culture-specific variance, and overall more evidence emerged for effects unique to each culture than effects similar across cultures. Follow-up analyses suggested this cultural variability was consistent with models of pre-existing inequalities and socioecological stressors exacerbating the effects of the pandemic. Collectively, this evidence highlights the importance of developing culturally flexible models for understanding the cross-cultural nature of pandemic psychology beyond typical WEIRD approaches

Why are you not burned out yet? The role of psychological needs satisfaction and appraisal in the Job Demands-Resources Model

While studies have found that greater job demands leads to greater burnout, there have been some inconsistent findings in the effects of demands. Building on Job Demands-Resources research and the challenge-hindrance framework, we investigate how (a) appraisals and (b) psychological needs satisfaction affect the relationship between job demands and burnout/engagement. A time-lagged online survey was conducted with 160 full-time employees across diverse locations and occupations (51.9% women, mean age was 30.0 years old, SD 7.14). The data was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. We found that some hindrance and challenge appraisals of job demands moderated the relationship between job demands (cognitive and emotional) and burnout/engagement, and satisfied psychological needs (relatedness and autonomy) moderated the relationship between job demands and engagement. This study extends existing research by investigating job demand appraisals and psychological needs as moderators of the job demands-well-being relationship and by partially explaining job demands’ relationship with positive and negative well-being outcomes