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Publication

Everybody hurts: self-employment, financial concerns, mental distress, and well-being during COVID-19

Authors

Summary

Adopting an abductive approach, in this paper we use two studies to examine the relationships between financial worries and well-being amongst the self-employed during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Study 1 of 4806 participants from the Understanding Society’s COVID-19 survey of the UK population, we find that financial worries were associated with higher mental distress for self-employed when facing reduced work hours. In Study 2, in a sample of 1794 participants from the six-country COVID study, we find that higher than expected fall in income mediates the association between self-employment and happiness. The findings have implications for research regarding financial worries, distress, and well-being of the self-employed.

Volume

Volume: 15:e00231

Subjects

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