A Comparison of the Perceived Stress Levels, Well-Being, and Coping Strategies of Unmarried and Married Dual-Earner Females during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The novel coronavirus has spread with such severity that all countries across the globe, imposed lockdowns to limit its spread. The pandemic has severely affected dual-earner females as they now have the dual burden of personal (home) and professional work to deal with. Hence, it is pertinent to take up the present study which compares the stress and well-being levels, and coping styles of unmarried and married dual-earner females due to the lifestyle changes induced by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Perceived stress was assessed using Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen and Williamson, 1988), well-being was assessed using P.G.I. General Well-Being Scale (Verma and Verma, 1989) and coping styles were evaluated using Brief Cope Scale (Carver, 1997). A total of 169 participants including 60 unmarried dual-earner females (35.50%) and 109 married dual-earner females (64.50%) were selected from India through purposive sampling. Welch’s t-test was performed using SPSS. The finding reveals that unmarried dual-earner females experience significantly more stress and lesser well-being than their married counterparts. Further, the analysis indicates that married dual-earners are significantly high on religion and positive-reframing coping style. Whereas, unmarried dual-earner females are high on self-blame and humor coping styles. The present study also has implications for future interventions: a) emphasizes on the strengthening of the social support which helps in lowering the stress and enhancing the well-being levels; b) the comparative study reflects that the public policies should incorporate the component that has consideration towards the mental health of dual-earner females.