Finding Strength in Times of Crisis? Post-Traumatic Growth During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Saudi Arabian Perspective

This paper contributes to the Covid-19 literature by exploring the concept of post-traumatic growth (PTG) utilizing a mixed methods approach. The study examines to what extent the participants experienced positive growth and renewal arising from the prolonged period of lockdowns and emergency online learning. Exploring the experiences of 552 female undergraduate students in a private Saudi Arabian university, an online survey was utilized to gather the data. All the students had experienced online education as a result of the pandemic. The findings indicate the participants underwent a diversity of personal growth experiences. In addition, they also developed different coping mechanisms. The study provides insights into the responses of the students to the issues they were facing during the pandemic. It identifies ways in which participants experienced personal growth as well as a shift in perspective about their lives. There are implications for educators, counselors and policymakers emerging from this study. AD -, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ;, Netherlands ;, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Civil Society as an Agent of Change

The covid-19 crisis is the tip of an iceberg. In actual fact, the crisis goes much deeper. It comprises a crisis of democracy, of the nation state, and of capitalism. We are in the middle of an iconic turn and face challenges of an unprecedented scale. It seems inconceivable to tackle any of these challenges without involving societal actors wherever they are. Civil society has proven to be an important agent of change, and has a lot to bring to the table. Yet, knowledge of civil society is underdeveloped, and the state and the private sector hesitate to introduce a level playing field that would enable civil society to act in the sense that Habermas (and others) describe as deliberative democracy to mean the participative process needed to move an agenda by debate prior to taking decisions. © 2022, The Author(s).

"It's Not Like Chasing Chanel:” Spending Time, Investing in the Self, and Pandemic Epiphanies

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the labor market and given rise to the Great Resignation. Drawing on a mixed methods panel study of 199 precarious and gig-based workers, we analyze how a changing conception of free time during the Covid-19 pandemic led low-wage service workers to seek more fulfilling careers. Whereas most workers initially perceived free time in terms of opportunity costs, they later reconceived this time as enabling an investment in personal growth, moving from "spending time” making money to "investing time” in themselves. This shift in temporal experience is expressed through the adoption of a "work passion” logic and "pandemic epiphanies” that motivated respondents to seek self-affirming and potentially more lucrative work opportunities.

Personal growth or servant leader: What do hotel employees need most to be affectively well amidst the turbulent COVID-19 times?

With a focus on serving employees' highest priority needs, servant leaders can promote affective well-being. An important mechanism by which this relationship may manifest is through elevating employees' personal growth, which elicits positive effects that are connected with feelings of affective well-being. However, in turbulent times, furloughed employees may appreciate having a leader who cares for them and is attentive to their needs rather than experiencing personal growth. Using structural equation modeling to analyze a sample of 205 Spanish hotel employees after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that servant leadership increased the affective well-being of employees both directly and by elevating their personal growth. A multigroup analysis, together with the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, also revealed that, for active employees, both having a servant leader and experiencing personal growth were important for feeling affective well-being. However, for furloughed employees, only being supported by a caring leader was important. Thus, we shed new light on the mechanisms underlying the positive effect of servant leadership on employees' affective well-being and how this link works in times of severe change, such as those caused by the pandemic.

A Strategic Curriculum Design for an Introductory Engineering Course to Encourage Self-Empowerment of Minority Students

The objective of this paper is to report on the preliminary implementation of educational activities and learning modules to improve the curriculum design of an introductory engineering course. The new curriculum, which was strategically designed to empower underrepresented minoritized (URM) students in STEM, incorporates complementary educational activities and academic interventions including 1) the use of EduGuide online coaching platform to equip students to pursue their personal growth goals, and 2) the implementation of professional development workshops to reinforce and influence the academic career decision-making and preparedness of first-year undergraduate students. The proposed curriculum design was applied to two class sections of an introductory engineering course with a total of 53 first-year students during the fall semester of 2020. Virtual teaching and learning environments were required across this institution to comply with the social distancing and lockdown requirements enacted by the federal government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.. As part of the coaching platform, students in these two classes had access to an online mentoring community of 32 members from academia and industry. The professional development workshops were also provided in a virtual format yet synchronous format to support engagement with the facilitators and among peers. Students were asked to complete an online pre-semester survey, develop feedback essays, and respond to self-reflecting open-ended questions to gather substantial data to assess the impact of the implemented interventions and educational activities. From this study, the new curriculum design showed great potential in encouraging self-empowerment of minority students, which can consequently result in greater rates of persistence, motivation, and academic success. The university provided the required support to create an introductory university course under the Engineering Leadership and Education department to offer the new curriculum design to first-year undergraduate students interested in engineering programs. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

The Power of Coaching: Supercharge Your Personal and Professional Well-Being

After the upheaval of the last two years, many physicians are reassessing their priorities. Coaching provides a framework for learning from the past to build a brighter future.

Aging and Psychological Well-Being: The Possible Role of Inhibition Skills.

(1) Background: Psychological well-being (PWB) is a multidimensional construct which is a key protective factor against chronic diseases in older adults. Numerous psychological and cognitive factors can influence older people's PWB. However, while most studies have explored the effect of general cognition, only a few investigated the role of specific cognitive functions such as the efficiency of executive functions. Thus, the present study aimed to directly explore the relationships between PWB, age, and the core executive functions (namely working memory, flexibility, and inhibition). (2) Methods: A sample of 51 healthy older adults (age range: 60-88) were enrolled and tested both for PWB (by Ryff's psychological well-being scale) and the core executive functions (by the Digit span backward, the Trail Making Test, and the Stroop test). (3) Results: Age and inhibitory skills are negatively correlated to the personal growth subscale of the PWB scale. Moreover, a hierarchical regression analysis showed that inhibition, but not working memory and flexibility, predicted the sense of continued growth and development (personal growth) of older adults, even after controlling for age and educational levels. Limitations and implications for future research and prevention interventions are discussed.

Personal growth initiative moderates the mediating effect of COVID-19 preventive behaviors between fear of COVID-19 and satisfaction with life.

This study focused on a moderated mediation model. First, it determined the mediating effect of COVID-19 preventive behaviors between fear of COVID-19 and satisfaction with life. Next, it examined whether personal growth initiative moderated the mediation effect. The study comprised 461 Pakistani university students (52% men and 48% women) between 18 and 35 years (M = 24.66, SD = 3.51). Results indicated that higher levels of fear of COVID-19 were linked to greater adherence to COVID-19 preventive behaviors, which in turn were related to higher levels of satisfaction with life (mediation model). With regard to the hypothesized moderated mediation model, results showed that personal growth initiative moderated the mediating path from fear of COVID-19 to satisfaction with life and from COVID-19 preventive behaviours to satisfaction with life. Further, results suggested that fear of COVID-19 and COVID-19 preventive behaviours had stronger effects on satisfaction with life when personal growth initiative was high, but not when it was low or moderate. It was therefore concluded that personal growth initiative may play a protective role in buffering the negative effect of higher levels of fear of COVID-19 on satisfaction with life and an enabling role in strengthening the relationship between COVID-19 preventive behaviors and satisfaction with life. Theoretical contribution and practical implications of the results are discussed as well as the study limitations and future research prospects.

India's missing working women: Tracing the journey of women's economic contribution over the last seven decades, and during COVID-19

India today is an economic powerhouse on the global stage. However, it faces a queer conundrum. Despite considerable gains in female education, decreases in fertility rates and increasing economic growth, only a fourth of its women are in the labor force, amongst the lowest in the world. Based on analysis of time series data over the last seven decades (1950-2018), this paper finds that women's labor force and workforce participation rates have secularly declined to their lowest levels since Independence. Women's wages have consistently been below men, with weighted average wage gaps increasing from 59% in 1993, to 72% in 2018. The fall in labor force participation has been led by women in rural areas, while female unemployment rates have remained higher than men in urban areas. We find that occupational segregation and concentration of women in low-growth sectors, income effect of rising household earnings, increased mechanization and gender gaps in tertiary education and skill training are leading factors behind the observed labor market outcomes. Recent high-frequency data shows that 15 million women lost their jobs in the first month of the COVID-19 induced lockdown. Even as the overall size of the labor force shrunk by 3% between November 2019 to November 2020, the size of the labor force shrunk by 13% for women, vs. 2% for men. Bringing women back to the workforce requires a differentiated approach, targeting different segments, especially informal workers, microentrepreneurs and the formal sector. Therefore, a diverse mix of targeted policy interventions like gender quotas in public works, easier access to credit for female micro-entrepreneurs, preferential procurement for women-owned business, greater flexibility in workplace arrangements and gender targets for skill training among others would help retain and promote workforce participation for women.

A Hand to Mouth Existence: Hurdles Emanating from the COVID 19 Pandemic for Women Survivalist Entrepreneurs in Johannesburg, South Africa

There are many women survivalist entrepreneurs in South Africa, many of whom work in the informal sector. The emergence of theCOVID-19 pandemic has a devastating effect on their entrepreneurial projects. While both the public and private sectors have initiated various measures to ease the blow, obstacles continue to confront them. This study sought to examine the challenges faced by women survivalist entrepreneurs in South Africa’s Johannesburg metropolitan area. The researchers gathered qualitative data using a qualitative research approach by conducting semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The data was analysed using thematic analyses. The themes that emerged from the findings include;a lack of capital for reinvestment, no government grant support, a decline in the demand for products by the market, rotting agricultural produce or stock, a battle for strategic selling points and numerous confrontations with police as a result of not meeting the regulatory rules relating to COVID-19. The present research provides theoretical implications for academics in entrepreneurship by enhancing the understanding of the hurdles that these entrepreneurs have experienced because of COVID-19. On the practitioners’ side, this work offers avenues for women survivalist entrepreneurs to improve their entrepreneurial ventures and eventually eliminate the challenges they face when running their ventures. This study also offers policy implications. For example, existing government policies can be amended to make the working conditions of women survivalist entrepreneurs better or make the rules under which they operate simpler. This study contributes to entrepreneurship literature by uncovering the difficulties faced by women survivalist entrepreneurs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will assist other scholars in further developing this research field. As such, this research is important for women survivalist entrepreneurs because most of them endeavour to enhance entrepreneurial performance for the betterment of their lives. Governments may also use the study to develop interventions aimed at facilitating the growth and development of women survivalist entrepreneurs.

Psychological well-being among older adults during the COVID-19 outbreak: a comparative study of the young-old and the old-old adults.

The COVID-19 outbreak could be considered as an uncontrollable stressful life event. Lockdown measures have provoked a disruption of daily life with a great impact over older adults' health and well-being. Nevertheless, eudaimonic well-being plays a protective role in confronting adverse circumstances, such as the COVID-19 situation. This study aims to assess the association between age and psychological well-being (personal growth and purpose in life). Young-old (60-70 years) and old-old (71-80 years) community-dwelling Spaniards (N = 878) completed a survey and reported on their sociodemographic characteristics and their levels of health, COVID-19 stress-related, appraisal, and personal resources. Old-old did not evidence poorer psychological well-being than young-old. Age has only a negative impact on personal growth. The results also suggest that the nature of the COVID-19 impact (except for the loss of a loved one) may not be as relevant for the older adults' well-being as their appraisals and personal resources for managing COVID-related problems. In addition, these results suggest that some sociodemographic and health-related variables have an impact on older adults' well-being. Thus, perceived-health, family functioning, resilience, gratitude, and acceptance had significant associations with both personal growth and purpose in life. Efforts to address older adults' psychological well-being focusing on older adults' personal resources should be considered.