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Predictors of psychological well-being during imposed prolonged absence from work
Abstract
Background
Between March 2020 and September 2021, 11.7 million employee jobs were furloughed through the UK Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (JRS). Imposed work absence shielded workers from job loss, but furloughed workers had increased risk of poor mental health compared to those who stayed working. Understanding the factors that mitigate psychological distress during imposed work absence can inform actions to be taken in future crises.
Aims
To explore the relationships between (a) work and home demands with well-being outcomes, and (b) personal and organisational resources with well-being outcomes, during periods of imposed prolonged absence and uncertainty.
Methods
We analysed online survey data collected with furloughed workers in the UK ‘Wellbeing of the Workforce Study’. Measures included psychological well-being, anxiety, life satisfaction, job insecurity, home demands (quantitative and emotional), organisational support for work-family balance, and personal resources (resilience, purpose, and coping ability).
Results
Psychological well-being was associated positively with quantitative home demands (β = 0.24, p < 0.05) and personal resources (β = 0.45, p < 0.001). Life satisfaction was associated negatively with emotional demands at home (β = –0.26, p < 0.05) and positively with personal resources (β = 0.30, p < 0.05). Perceived job insecurity was positively associated with anxiety (β = 0.36, p < 0.001).
Conclusions
Job-related factors are less influential during periods of employment uncertainty compared to personal and home resources. Decision-makers should provide psychological support during periods of job uncertainty and bolster the essential benefits of personal and home resources. Moving forwards, these findings may have broader applicability to other challenges and crises, such as suspension from work, or role changes resulting from organisational restructuring.
Citations
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Date
2025
Type
Article
Subject
Mental health, Workplace, COVID-19
Collections
Citation
Blake, H., Hassard, J., Karanika-Murray, M., Choo, W. H. & Thomson, L. (2025). Predictors of psychological well-being during imposed prolonged absence from work. Discover Public Health, 22, pp.657.
Journal / Source Title
DOI
PMID
Publisher
Springer Nature
Publisher’s URL
Publisher’s statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the
source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article
are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the
article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to
obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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