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.