This is a year-long ethnographic study of high-school student activists in the New England area that examines youth perceptions of climate change and climate change activism. Our society often devalues the opinions and experiences of young people because of the intersecting marginalized identities they inhabit, including age, race, and gender. Thus, discussions on how climate activism affects youth tend to lack the perspective of the young people themselves. Through a combination of participant-observation and semi-structured interviews, I sought to answer the following research questions: 1) How do young activists in the New England area understand climate change? 2) How does participating in a youth-centered climate justice organization impact their overall sense of well-being? About half-way through the planning of this research study, the coronavirus pandemic swept the world, which added another layer to this research study: 3) How does the COVID-19 pandemic impact youth perceptions and experiences of climate change activism? In this thesis, I argue that young people in this climate organization, through their shared experiences of cultivating social capital, expanding critical consciousness, and adaptive redefining of social relationships, develop a strong and sustained sense of community that motivates them to continue their activism. In a society that undervalues young people, these youth actively reclaim agency and use this to challenge the structures that continue to perpetuate environmental injustice. This in turn provides these young people with a heightened sense of well-being in the face of multiple existential threats that threaten their current and future existence, namely racial injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the potential destruction of their planet. / 2022-11-23T00:00:00Z

This study was conducted in order to understand stressful situations and stress coping strategies among employees who were working from home during the covid-19 pandemic. In attempt to bridge this knowledge gap, a critical incident approach was employed. Twelve (12) participants who were working from home were obtained purposively to participate in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted through zoom to collect data. Critical Incident Technique was used during interviews and thematic analysis were used to analyse data. The study revealed stressors which are lack of enough resources, extra work, lack of autonomy, work future uncertainty, stress due to covid-19, lack of help when needed, difficulties to reach colleagues, job inefficient and presence of telework unsuitable jobs. Coping strategies revealed were positive mindset, seeking social support, physical exercises, self-efforts to find solution of telework challenges, working extra hours and not answering calls or emails on purpose. It was recommended that organizations should determine suitable jobs for telework, providing required resources, granting employees working autonomy, as well as establishing a channel which can be used as a means of communication among employees as well as to be used as an inspiration and encouragement channel through proving motivational adds to help employees to relive their stressful situations.

The aim of this study was to investigate management and leadership at a distance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden. Eight managers from a large industrial company in Sweden currently working full time from home participated in the study, of which six were women. Semi structured interviews were carried out and the data was analyzed through thematic analysis which yielded 7 themes accompanied by 5 subthemes. Not being in the same physical space removes informal interactions, and to combat this, formalization has increased. Tasks that do not lend themselves well to formalization, such as getting a feel for co-worker’s emotional state or creative work, were found to be more difficult. The managers workdays had a high number of digital meetings, and their way of working was changed through digital adaptations. While the availability of quality social interactions with co-workers was down, digital meetings were used to keep interactions up within the work group. While work environment management was harder, work requiring heavy focus was described as more efficient when teleworking. Overall, the situation surrounding COVID-19 has been challenging for managers, but the digital space has evolved quickly, and work has still been able to function surprisingly well.

Latinx communities in the United States made up 18% of the total population, yet accounted for 33% of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. This supported the study aim to increase Latinx COVID-19 knowledge and self-efficacy for performing COVID-19 risk reduction mitigation behaviors via dissemination of the new online e-health intervention of the “Our COVID-19 Knowledge Test.” The study recruited online a largely female Latinx adult sample (N=118) with 68.6% born in the U.S. that was well-educated, given a mean education level of a bachelor’s degree; and, a mean annual household income of $50,000 to $99,000. During the pandemic year of 2020, 46.5% of the survey participants experienced moderate to maximum/extreme cultural stress, and moderately high COVID-19 related stress—while 66.9% reported depression, 78.8% anxiety, and 45.2% trauma. Their high rates of COVID-19 depression and anxiety were more than double those rates reported across samples identified globally during the pandemic. They experienced significant declines in their self-rated mental health status and physical health status from pre-pandemic to during the pandemic, high social support, and closest to a good quality of life. Supporting the value of the new “Our COVID-19 Knowledge Test” as a brief online e-health intervention, paired t-tests showed statistically significant increases in self-ratings for both COVID-19 knowledge and self-efficacy for COVID-19 risk reduction behaviors after taking the True-False test. Participants endorsed the dissemination of the new True-False “Our COVID-19 Knowledge Test” with all True answers as a brief online e-health intervention they would recommend to others as a way to learn about COVID-19. Meanwhile, on this True-False test, the sample evidenced very high knowledge of COVID-19. The sample also had a high intention to vaccinate or already vaccinated at 87%. Findings from independent t-tests, Pearson correlations, and regression analyses collectively affirmed the critical importance of having both high knowledge and high self-efficacy for performing preventive behaviors for reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission, implementing mitigation strategies, and reducing mortality. Implications and recommendations focused on the value of the genre of a True-False test, with all True answers, for disseminating evidence-based information, and countering misinformation during pandemics and public health crises. Finally, the short tools used in this study were recommended for application in future research and as screening tools.

No description available.

This research was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic. In an attempt to bridge a knowledge gap, a phenomenological study was carried out to answer the question “What is shared between people’s experiences of doing home-based telework during the Covid-19 pandemic?”. Four people who were currently working from home participated in the study of which three were women. A method of empirical psychological phenomenology or EPP was used in both research process and analysis. The results were that a digital adjustment had been made and digital communication was used in place of regular social interactions. These interactions were not as satisfactory as regular social interactions. The work was more flexible which lead to blurred boundaries and a greater ability to structure the workday after personal needs. A reduced work motivation and personal impact of Covid-19 was found. Also, there were new insights on the viability of telework and digital solutions going forward. This study contributed to a gap in research by providing insight into what the experience of teleworking during the Covid-19 pandemic may look like, which was an unexplored field.

This study is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with eight people. The purpose of this study has been to investigate women's mental health during covid-19. The study has the following research questions: Have women in Sweden and Norway experienced that their mental health has been affected by Covid-19? And if so, how has it been affected? Have there been any differences between mental health before and during the pandemic?   The study shows that the respondents have a fairly similar opinion about how mental health was experienced during covid-19, but the answers were a little more different when it came to what was the biggest change during covid-19. None of the respondents stated that they had any mental disorders before the pandemic, but during the pandemic the most important findings were that the respondents could at times experience mental disorders such as loneliness and depression. The result of this study is that there is a difference in the mental health of women before and during the pandemic, but this difference is not large. The only thing that can be concluded is that the interviewees during the pandemic have experienced mental disorders such as loneliness and depression due to the restrictions during the pandemic.

Background The Covid-19 pandemic has been a big influence for everybody since it entered in the spring of 2019. However, no research has been done on how different strategic leadership has influenced the organizational adaptation during this time.   Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the role of strategic leadership in organizational adaptation due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The research is based on a single case study that explores Åhléns AB and its subsidiaries Åhléns Outlet and Designtorget.   Method This is a qualitative study that is performed by using a single case study design, where one organization is examined to fulfill the purpose of the study and aim to develop an in-depth understanding of the research subject.   Conclusion Based on the conducted research that has been done, it can be drawn to the conclusion that the transcendent leadership style has influenced organizational adaptation. The organization has become more transparent as well as more flexible as an organization due to the leadership. By combining a task-oriented approach with a relationship-oriented approach such as, a leader can set up greater structured goals and pursue new initiatives in line with external changes.

The pandemic is not only a crisis itself but has created multiple crises for the vulnerable population as well. Worldwide, they encountered multiple challenges to assistance and protection, but due to the pandemic, their needs might have increased. As the number of refugees, migrants, and asylum-seeker is rising, all the health risks and the challenges that this group is exposed to, demonstrates the need for increased support, protection, and assistance. This scoping review aims to investigate if the arisen challenges faced by vulnerable children and their families have exacerbated in the context of COVID-19, in the published research literature. In this scoping review, information was collected on multiple databases between January and February 2021. Seven empirical studies were analysed in order to examine which are the new challenges that have arisen due to COVID-19 and explore if they worsened in this context. Seven areas emerged due to the pandemic: hygiene measures, food insecurity, child labour, child marriage, freedom of movement, access to education, access to services and sources of information, while five areas have worsened: economic, psychological, violence, discrimination and overcrowding. The findings are showing that COVID-19’s disease burden is higher in vulnerable contexts, due to the living conditions, high risks jobs, and poor access to services. The outcomes of these challenges are likely to be long-standing, as they breached into the processes and structures of the family system Although efforts to control the virus’s spread remain critical, the negative effects on vulnerables, must be addressed and identified to avoid the risk of more challenges getting exacerbated, and reduce the parental stress that will lead to the well-being of the future generations. Limitations, practical implications and future research are discussed.

Covid-19-pandemin har resulterat i en påskyndad och plötslig implementering av digitala verktyg och distansarbete, något som för många verksamheter inneburit stora förändringar. Uppsatsen utgår från en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade intervjuer har utförts på sju gruppchefer inom en svensk myndighet. Syftet med denna studie var att få en fördjupad förståelse för chefers upplevelser av att leda en oplanerad förändringsprocess. För att uppfylla syftet formulerades forskningsfrågorna; ”hur beskriver intervjupersonerna omställningen till distansarbete?”, ”hur kan intervjupersonernas upplevelser förstås i enlighet med begreppen kommunikation, information och delaktighet?” och ”vilka möjligheter respektive utmaningar kan identifieras i den genomförda omställningen?”. Vidare analyserades det insamlade materialet med grund i tidigare forskning och teorier inom ämnena organisationsförändring, kommunikation, information och delaktighet.  Resultatet visar att den plötsliga omställningen till distansarbete som konsekvens av Covid-19-pandemin har inneburit stora förändringar för många av verksamhetens funktioner. Det påvisasatt kommunikation, information och delaktighet är faktorer som anses vara av stor vikt under tider som denna, präglade av kriser och förändring. Det implementerade distansarbetet tycks även ha resulterat i en närmare relation mellan chefer och medarbetare, då dessa fått mer sändningstid tillsammans. Slutligen framkommer det att distansarbetet uppskattas av intervjupersonerna och är något som kan komma att bli en fråga i huruvida verksamheten anses vara en attraktiv arbetsplats eller inte i framtiden.