Abstract
The hospitality industry worldwide is suffering under the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the transactional theory of stress and coping, this study aims to investigate when hospitality workers’ COVID-19 risk perception affects their likelihood of having depressive symptoms. Using data from 211 hospitality workers in 76 hotels in Peru, we examined the effects of perceived COVID-19 risk on the likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms. We posited that this relationship is moderated by the workers’ environment at work (job satisfaction) and at home (the number of children). The results indicate that job satisfaction weakens the link between hospitality workers’ COVID-19 risk perception and their likelihood of depressive symptoms while the number of children exacerbates this link. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on COVID-19 risk perception and offer practical implications for hospitality workers under COVID-19 crisis.
1. Introduction
The hospitality workers are facing extremely challenging times as countries around the world restrict travel and prohibit social gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19. This unprecedented disruption threatens the mental health of hospitality workers by increasing their worries on health and job prospects (e.g., Alonso et al., 2020; Filimonau et al., 2020). This study explores under what situations hospitality workers are more or less likely to experience depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw on the transactional theory of stress and coping that considers acute and chronic stress outcomes as the result of individuals’ cognitive appraisals of the situation (Bliese et al., 2017; Lazarus, 1968; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). We hypothesized that hospitality workers’ perceived risk of COVID-19 increases the likelihood of depressive symptoms, moderated by the workers’ environment at work (job satisfaction) and at home (parental obligation).
6. Conclusion
By applying the transactional theory of stress and coping, we advanced COVID-19 risk perception research as applied to hospitality workers. We generated a scale to measure COVID-19 risk perception and examined two factors where job satisfaction buffers the negative effect of COVID-19 risk perception on likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms, while the number of children under 18 years old aggravates it to advance research and identify specific strategies to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
