Experience of Perceived Stress and Impact of Health Locus of Control During COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating Entrepreneurs and Corporate Employees

Abstract

The sudden, rapid and ongoing outbreak of novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has forced social distancing and lockdowns. Many people have already started experiencing an elevated feeling of loneliness, emotional distress, anxious and depressive thoughts related to the concerns for the disrupted social, emotional, spiritual, professional and financial wellbeing of family, friends and self. Many are feeling distressed on recurring thoughts about how long this pandemic will last, whether our family and friends will be infected and how long we will be living in this condition. Hence, the researchers of this study anticipated that the COVID-19 outbreak would be highly stressful to the people and will have psychological consequences of varying degrees. This study examines the relationship of stress, anxiety with health locus of control (HLOC) among entrepreneurs and employees serving in organisations, and the coping strategies they have adopted to overcome it. Using the quasi-experiment method, the data were collected using the perceived stress scale (PSS) and multidimensional health locus of control (MHLC) from 91 entrepreneurs and employees. The findings indicated a significant association between HLOC and stress. It was observed that respondents were aware that the current work stress is arising because of a struggle to balance personal and professional lives during the pandemic. Further, it was also observed that stress was significantly higher in employees than entrepreneurs, and HLOC types positively impacted their stress levels.