The psychology of precarity: A critical framework.

This article presents the rationale and a new critical framework for precarity, which reflects a psychosocial concept that links structural inequities with experiences of alienation, anomie, and uncertainty. Emerging from multiple disciplines, including anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, political science, and psychology, the concept of precarity provides a conceptual scaffolding for understanding the complex causes of precarious life circumstances while also seeking to identify how people react, adapt, and resist the forces that evoke such tenuous psychosocial experiences. We present a critical conceptual framework as a nonlinear heuristic that serves to identify and organize relevant elements of precarity in a presumably infinite number of contexts and applications. The framework identifies socio-political-economic contexts, material conditions, and psychological experiences as key elements of precarity. Another essential aspect of this framework is the delineation of interrelated and nonlinear responses to precarity, which include resistance, adaptation, and resignation. We then summarize selected implications of precarity for psychological interventions, vocational and organizational psychology, and explorations and advocacy about race, gender, and other systems of inequality. Future research directions, including optimal methodologies to study precarity, conclude the article. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

"Like a tsunami coming in fast": A critical qualitative study of precarity and resistance during the pandemic.

This study explores the nature of precarity via the lens of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Precarity refers to uncertainty, loss, disruption, and anxiety, which differentially impact people across contexts. We sought to (a) identify how people understand and resist precarity during the pandemic; (b) explore the potential of precarity to serve as an organizing concept for psychological praxis and research; and (c) explore ways in which psychology of working theory (PWT) may be enriched by an infusion of precarity into its theoretical tenets. Twenty-seven participants who experienced work-related disruptions completed an open-ended survey during the summer of 2020 about the multifaceted challenges they faced. We used conventional content analysis to analyze the responses and derived the following three themes: (a) disruptions at work elevate precarity; (b) relationships as a source of both stress and resilience/resistance; and (c) expanding critical consciousness and resistance. Using a critical qualitative research lens, we identified ways in which people were protected from, or vulnerable to, the threats to their security. We also explored the complex intersection of structural barriers and social identities in relation to precarity. We presented propositions to guide future scholarship on precarity and PWT. Implications for practice and advocacy conclude the article. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Auditory brainstem response detects early bilirubin neurotoxicity at low indirect bilirubin values.

When sedation, prematurity or other disease processes mask symptoms in the clinically ill newborn, serum bilirubin concentration is monitored as the sole indicator of kernicterus risk. This case emphasizes the value of auditory brainstem responses for the management of indirect hyperbilirubinemia complicated by prematurity, hemolytic anemia, asphyxia, and direct hyperbilirubinemia.