Literature Review
During this chaotic situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, where
about half of the world’s population has been under some form of
lockdown, a lot of studies have taken place in this regard. One such
study was carried out to investigate the impact of lockdown on the
living habits of people and their social behaviour intending to measure
the adjustments made by people and how they maintained their daily
routine during the crisis (Mahendra Kumar & Sachin Dwivedi, 2020). The
study reflected the drastic changes in the lifestyle of people due to
the lockdown with a lot of people adapting to work from home culture,
installing new applications on their electronic devices, maximizing the
use of internet data for official work and to access social media to
improve communication facilities, thereby overcoming social isolation.
People spent more time watching television, cooking, reading, sleeping
and less time working out. The lockdown impacted the mental state of
people as they were more worried about their family and friends. Forced
to being socially isolated added to overthinking and anxiety. This
lockdown also awakened the sense of belonging and solidarity among
people as they provided mutual assistance towards their family and
friends in motivating them to stay positive and passing on important
information related to COVID-19. All in all, the study emphasized the
need to monitor and gather research data to develop evidence-driven
strategies to understand the adverse effects of the lockdown
implementation and impacts caused by these unprecedented changes in
people’s daily lives, which is what this study tries to imbibe.
A salient aspect of an employed individual’s well-being has been job
satisfaction, and the attainment of such satisfaction during the
lockdown seemed slightly skeptical. Khuntia and Adhikary ( 2015)
emphasized on the different dimensions of job satisfaction and their
impact over level of job satisfaction and level of performance of
management college teachers in Orissa through statistical techniques
like chi-square test of association and multiple regression analysis. No
association between job satisfaction and performance was seen. Major
determinants of job satisfaction included work pressure, salary and job
security. It was also observed that the teachers had the fear of losing
their jobs. Khuntia and Adhikary have restricted their study to
academicians only. This study, however, has been an attempt to
understand how the imposed lockdown has affected job satisfaction of the
working class in general.
Similar studies have been carried out to understand the impact of
different dimensions on life satisfaction which constitutes a major
component of one’s well-being. Toker (2012) assessed life satisfaction
using Diener et al.’s Life Satisfaction Scale. Among the demographic
variables, gender, age, income level, length of service in higher
education, length of service at the present university and abroad
experience were significantly related to life satisfaction, while
marital status was not.
Edwards and Klemmack (1973) tested for partial effects and determined
the extent to which each of the considered predictors make an
independent contribution to explain perceived satisfaction. One of the
major findings in their studies was that socioeconomic status,
nonfamilial participation and health status were principal components in
the predictive modelling of life satisfaction, socioeconomic status
being the most important among them. They also concluded that people who
were young, married and had larger families were more satisfied with
life. The recent lockdown has brought about an ocean of changes in the
daily lives of people, leading to a lot of changes in lifestyle. Through
this study, an attempt has been made to validate the credibility of the
previously done studies, specifically in the lockdown scenario.
Comparison of satisfaction levels between the two phases, before and
during the lockdown has been done.
Spatial differences in the impact of the Dutch lockdown was mapped on
well-being and lifestyle in a study (Leeuwen & Lepage, 2020). From
initial analysis, they claimed that during the lockdown, on an average,
well-being declined across the Netherlands. It differed significantly
between rural and urban areas during the lockdown, but this was not the
case before. The decline in well-being among urban dwellers was
affiliated to their environment and population composition. Further,
they put forth that the well-being of young people of age 18-25
deteriorated most due to the lockdown. Due to the vast cultural
difference between Netherlands and India, the trend observed in life
satisfaction in the two countries might vary a lot. This study is an
attempt to understand these differences and similarities.