"I Could Be Unemployed the Rest of the Year”: Unprecedented Times and the Challenges of "Making More”

The COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented in many ways, but perhaps no more so than in the sudden expansion of—and increase in—unemployment assistance benefits. We ask how precarious workers, many of whom were "hustling” for money or engaged in creative fields, feel about making more on unemployment. How are they using the funds? We draw on remote interviews and online surveys with 199 gig and precarious workers in New York City during the first wave of the pandemic. We find that workers are ambivalent about unemployment assistance and concerned that a financial influx today portends a shortage tomorrow. This "specter of the unknown” affected workers' use of their benefits. As a result, even though the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was intended to mitigate the social and economic impact of the pandemic, these programs—despite being helpful—may have also contributed to precarious workers becoming even more certain of their insecurity.

Childhood food insecurity: A program impact and evaluation study of the meals on wheels for kids program

In America, millions of families and children face hunger and food insecurity every day. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than thirty-eight million people experienced hunger in 2020. As many as 13 million children in the United States live in food-insecure homes. Many households that experience food insecurity do not qualify for federal nutrition programs. While valuable, barriers to these programs can block food-insecure households with children and prevent access to healthy food. The impact of adverse health and nutritional consequences, of a food-insecure household, will continue to plague our communities until efficient programming connects to those in need. Household and child food insecurity has greatly changed. Since the pandemic, our respect for food systems, food availability, and food security has greatly intensified. The actual numbers of food insecurity within these past two years are yet to be realized. While the above statistics are alarming, the concern is that food insecurity data will greatly worsen, specifically in families with children. The COVID-19 pandemic has made us all aware that, as a nation, we need to develop many programs to assure everyone has a place at the table. This proposed study will collaborate with a community pilot program that is trying to fill that gap. The program provides home-delivered meals and serves children in need of healthy foods. An evaluation and impact study for program recipients will analyze the impact of nutrition security and perceived benefits from the participation of the nutrition-focused, home delivery meal program. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Temporary Residents, Lasting Issues: International Graduate Students and Covid-19

La pandémie de Covid-19 a rendu les résidents temporaires au Canada particulièrement vulnérables, car leur statut juridique précaire, les obstacles à l'accès aux soins de santé, l'insécurité financière et professionnelle, l'impossibilité de voyager et l'isolement social se sont intensifiés. Les étudiants internationaux étaient parmi ceux qui devaient relever ces défis tout en étant rendus invisibles en raison de leur statut inconstant d'étudiants et de résidents temporaires. Nos recherches auprès d'étudiants étrangers diplômés et de leurs familles montrent que, même avant la pandémie, cette population était confrontée à des problèmes d'insécurité financière, d'équilibre entre vie professionnelle et vie privée, d'isolement social et de restrictions de voyage, problèmes aggravés par l'entrecroisement de la race et du genre, et exacerbés par la Covid-19. Étant donné que la pandémie de Covid-19 a amplifié les inégalités sous-jacentes au Canada au niveau systémique, avec plus de personnes racialisées atteints de Covid-19 et qui en meurent, et plus de personnes racialisées avec un statut légal précaire qui perdent leur gagnepain, nous pouvons postuler que les étudiants internationaux ne font pas exception. Les mesures adoptées par le gouvernement canadien, telles que la prestation d'urgence pour les étudiants canadiens, excluent les étudiants internationaux, qui contribuent à l'économie canadienne à hauteur de plus de 20 milliards de dollars par an et sont une source de revenus pour les universités et les collèges canadiens. Dans cet article, nous examinons comment la pandémie de Covid-19 a affecté les étudiants internationaux diplômés et leur vie familiale dans une ville de l'Alberta et quel impact les politiques gouvernementales ont eu sur leur vie. Basé sur 20 entretiens approfondis avec des étudiants étrangers diplômés et leurs conjoints, cet article met en évidence la disparité de soutien entre les étudiants étrangers et les citoyens canadiens pendant la pandémie, y compris le soutien financier, l'assistance institutionnelle, l'isolement et les interactions transnationales. Nous explorons également la manière dont les hypothèses institutionnelles et les politiques gouvernementales durant la pandémie sapent l'expérience sexiste et racialisée des étudiants étrangers diplômés avec leur famille immédiate et transnationale. Nous proposons à travers notre analyse que le traitement des étudiants internationaux pendant la pandémie devrait être une préoccupation de justice académique étant donné le statut vulnérable, précaire et relativement invisible de cette population, souligné en outre par les discriminations intersectionnelles vécues par de nombreux étudiants qui cherchent à trouver un avenir au Canada.Alternate :The Covid-19 pandemic made temporary residents in Canada particularly vulnerable, as their precarious legal status, barriers in accessing healthcare, financial and job insecurity, the impossibility of travel, and social isolation intensified. International students were among those who had to navigate these challenges while being made invisible due to their liminal status of being students and temporary residents. Our research with international graduate students and their families shows that even in pre-pandemic times, this population was battling financial insecurities, issues of worklife balance, social isolation, and travel restrictions;issues compounded at the intersections of race and gender and exacerbated by Covid-19. Given that the Covid-19 pandemic has amplified underlying inequities in Canada at the systemic level, with more racialized people being infected with Covid-19 and dying from it, and more racialized people with precarious legal status losing their livelihood, we can assume that international students are no exception. Measures adopted by the Canadian government, such as the Canada Student Emergency Benefit, excluded international students, who contribute over 20 billion dollars annuall to the Canadian economy and are a source of revenue for Canadian universities and colleges. In this paper, we explore how the Covid-19 pandemic affected international graduate students and their familial lives in a city in Alberta and what impact government policies had on their lives. Based on 20 in-depth interviews with international graduate students and their spouses, this paper highlights the disparity in support between international students and Canadian citizens during the pandemic, including financial support, institutional assistance, isolation, and transnational interactions. We also explore how institutional assumptions and governmental policies during the pandemic undermine the gendered and racialized experience of international graduate students with their immediate and transnational families. We contend through our analysis that the treatment of international students during the pandemic should be a concern of academic justice given the vulnerable, precarious, and relatively invisible status of this population, underscored further by the intersectional discriminations experienced by many students who are looking to find a future in Canada.

Precarious Employment during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Disability-Related Discrimination, and Mental Health

Drawing on separate strands of research documenting the psychological consequences of (a) precarious employment and other challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and (b) ableism, this study incorporates both into an examination of disability-based differences in the joint significance of discrimination and work precarity during the pandemic for mental health. Analyses utilizing data from a regional survey of people with and without disabilities in the Intermountain West (N = 2,012) provide evidence that precarious employment, greater discrimination, and disability independently predict depressive symptoms. Further, in the context of greater discrimination, more precarious employment is found to have greater significance for people with disabilities compared to those who are not currently disabled. These findings challenge us to think about how we engage in research concerning ableism and macro-level stressors, and underscore the role of power structures and positionality in shaping the psychological impact of employment challenges experienced during the pandemic.

The insecure skin‐ego: Conspiracy theories as a source of containment in a pandemic

In analyzing the psychological reactions to the recent COVID‐19 pandemic, we have tried to show that the existing societal protective skin that gives unity to people by creating a secure containment was too thin and fragile to cope with an annihilation situation such as the pandemic. This healthy and protective societal skin acts continuously as a maternal environment, providing physical and mental security. As a modest contribution, we provide psychoanalytic, social, cultural, and political analyses of the conspiracy theories and infodemics in the mid‐COVID‐19 era. We extend Anzieu's theory of skin‐ego from a maternal‐centered conceptualization to one based on a wider range of caregivers, including politicians, health care professionals, scientists, and researchers—who act as the suppliers of containment. During the pandemic, the common protective skin showed initial flexibility as it tried to regenerate a secure common skin with the help of the health care system and other state organizations responsible for managing the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, the common protective skin is under continuous attack by various politicians around the world, like the hyper‐masculine figure of Donald Trump who attacked this common skin, increasing the insecurity and helplessness of people. Like hermit crabs, thin‐skinned people with insecure skin‐egos sought refuge inside the shell of Trump's safer and thicker skin. A shell of conspiracy theories and infodemics provided by crustacean Trump functioned as a thick, protective skin. To illustrate our ideas, we present events and reactions from the pandemic and also cite two illustrative examples—the story of Noah's Ark and the children's classic, The Three Little Pigs.

Factors Associated with Mental Health of Medicare Beneficiaries During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined factors associated with the mental health of Medicare beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey COVID-19 Supplement administered in the Fall of 2020 of beneficiaries aged ≥65 years was analyzed (n = 6,173). A survey-weighted logistic model, adjusted for socio-demographics and comorbidities, was performed to examine factors (e.g., accessibility of medical/daily needs, financial security, and social connectivity) associated with stress/anxiety. RESULTS: Of Medicare beneficiaries, 40.8% reported feeling more stressed/anxious during the pandemic. Factors that were associated with this increased stress/anxiety include the inability to get home supplies (95% CI [3.4%, 16.5%]) or a doctor's appointment (95% CI [1.7%, 20.7%]), feeling less financially secure (95% CI [23.1%, 33.2%]) or socially connected (95% CI [19.1%, 25.6%]), and being female (95% CI [7.2%, 12.2%]), when compared with their respective counterparts. Non-Hispanic blacks were less likely to report feeling more stressed/anxious than non-Hispanic whites (95% CI [-19.9%, -9.0%]). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight that beneficiaries' mental health was adversely influenced by the pandemic, particularly in those who felt financially insecure and socially disconnected. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: It is warranted to screen at risk beneficiaries for stress/anxiety during Medicare wellness visits and advocate for programs to reduce those risk factors.

Privileged dependence, precarious autonomy: Parent/young adult relationships through the lens of COVID-19

Objective: This article identifies how social class differences in undergraduates' relationships with their parents shaped their responses to educational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: The mechanisms through which parents transmit class advantages to children are often hidden from view and therefore remain imperfectly understood. This study uses the case of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine how young adults from different social class backgrounds expect, negotiate, and attach meaning to parental support. Methods: This study draws from in-depth interviews with 48 Black and White upper-middle and working-class undergraduates from a single elite university, along with 10 of their mothers. Results: Facing pandemic-related disruptions, upper-middle-class students typically sought substantial direction and material assistance from parents. In contrast, working-class students typically assumed more responsibility for their own-and sometimes other family members'-well-being. These classed patterns of "privileged dependence" and "precarious autonomy" were shaped by students' understandings of family members' authority, needs, and responsibilities. Conclusion: Upper-middle-class students' greater dependence on parents functioned as a protective force, enabling them to benefit from parents' material and academic support during the transition to remote instruction. These short-term protections may yield long-term payoffs denied their working-class peers. Beyond the immediate context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concepts of "privileged dependence" and "precarious autonomy" offer scholars a set of theoretical tools for understanding class inequality in other young adult contexts.

The Measurement of Precarious Work and Market Conditions: Insights from the COVID-19 Disruption on Sample Selection

The precarious work construct combines employment instability and employment-contingent outcomes. Yet, I argue that confining the scope of the investigation to employed individuals creates a sample selection that disguises the heterogeneous nature of employment instability. The COVID-19 skyrocketing unemployment rate provides both a compelling motivation and a unique opportunity to revisit the construct of precarious work. Using pre-COVID and COVID-19 era data of the working-age population in Israel, the results demonstrate that by pushing less stable individuals out of employment, the COVID-19 recession strengthened the negative relationship between volatility and employment opportunities and accentuated sample selection. Because the selection into employment was not random, this introduces a bias into the measurement of precarious work, one that is more severe during a recession than in a full-employment market. The discussion highlights the broader significance of this lacuna and suggests a way to hone the conceptualization and operationalization of the precarious work construct.

Precarious Employment and Well-Being: Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic

While precarious employment is not a new concept, it has been brought to the center of scholarly and public discourse worldwide by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. This essay delineates how precarious employment shapes well-being and situates that relationship in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The essay also provides an overview of how the nine articles boldly investigate how these two layers of global risk—precarious employment and the pandemic—interact to shape individuals' well-being. In addition to advancing theoretical and empirical knowledge by analyzing timely data from diverse sources and populations, these articles call for more efforts on worker protection reforms and government financial support.

The weapons of the city against pandemic assaults

The cyclical spread of the pandemic requires a modification of the urban and territorial planning tools and a national anti-pandemic urban and territorial plan. The objective of the paper is to present some proposals for the protection from Covid risk, with a flexible reorganization of the times, spaces of the city and the territory. The working methodology consists in the revision of procedures for the protection from seismic risks and their expansion and complexification for the protection from pandemic risk. Some summary results of the study concern suggestions for the search for a symbiosis between the city of concentration, peripheralization and diffusion with the introduction of flexible, temporary and variable uses. But the possibility of reducing socio-spatial inequalities in cities, regions and the Country can be pursued not only in the context of European Recovery Plan funding, but also with a thorough review of the tools for protecting against global risk. The conclusions show that, with the recurrence of "mutant" pandemics, the city abandons the certainty of a continuity, in alternating phases, of development, the stability of uses and times of use of the urban space, favored by the permanence of habits and forms of consolidated life, and it will become a transforming city, a two-faced city.

Where is community during COVID-19? The experiences of families living in housing insecurity.

This article explores the understanding of community to families living in insecure housing in one Australian state during the COVID-19 pandemic. Five female-headed families were interviewed during the pandemic and asked to identify what community meant to them. All participants were referred by an agency caring for families experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. Community was defined using Bourdieu's concept of social capital, allowing for both bonding and bridging relationships to be explored. Bonding relationships refer to close emotional ties with family and friends, while bridging ties establish networks that provide individuals with access to resources. Two themes emerged that shed light on how community is understood during times of crisis: The first suggests that for families experiencing housing insecurity, particularly women escaping family violence, their links with community were primarily maintained by welfare and church agencies. These organisations provided bridging social capital during the pandemic that allowed the women and their children to cope with the isolation and to maximise opportunities. The second themes point to traditional notions of community as family and geographical space. Here the findings are mixed. Resources provided by government, and mediated through the welfare agency, allowed these families to create a safe and comfortable space. However, for First Nations women, the lockdown meant that it was difficult to maintain community obligations, while children who appeared to identify community with attendance at school found the lockdown confusing because of the disruption to their normal social space.

Fear of COVID-19 among Healthcare Workers: The Role of Neuroticism and Fearful Attachment.

Fear of becoming infected is an important factor of the complex suite of emotional reactions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among healthcare workers (HWs), fear of infection can put at risk their psychological well-being and occupational efficiency. The aim of this study was to analyze the role of personality (i.e., the big five traits) and adult attachment in predicting levels of fear (as measured by the FCV-19S) in 101 HWs employed in a COVID-19 university hospital. The three significant predictors retained by the stepwise regression model were age (beta = 0.26, t = 2.89, p < 0.01), emotional stability (i.e., the inverse of neuroticism) (beta = -0.26, t = -2.89, p < 0.01), and fearful attachment (beta = 0.25, t = 2.75, p < 0.01). Older HWs with higher levels of neuroticism and fearful attachment reported more intense fear of COVID-19. Our results can be useful to identify vulnerable subgroups of HWs and to implement selective programs of prevention based on counseling and psychological support.