COVID-19 impact on employee flourishing: Parental stress as mediator

Objectives: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has adversely affected the global community's economic, social, emotional, and physical well-being. Although prior research works have rigorously explored the adverse effects of COVID-19 on mental health, investigations linking the impact of COVID-19 with parental stress and flourishing are very scarce. Rooted in boundary theory, the authors examined the influence of COVID-19 on flourishing and parental stress, respectively. Furthermore, predicated on spillover theory, the study explored the mediating effect of parental stress. Method: In this research, 259 IT employees in India were prospectively followed from the second week until the twentieth week of lockdown as part of a longitudinal population. A three-stage data collection method was employed. The employee completed the COVID-19 impact scale in the 2nd and 10th week of lockdown in India. Subsequently, the authors administered parental stress and flourishing surveys online in the 20th week. Results: Findings revealed that COVID-19 negatively impacted employee flourishing, via parental stress that had a partial mediating effect. Conclusion: This study is the first of its kind to theoretically and empirically investigate the direct and indirect impact of COVID-19 on employees' flourishing via parental stress. Based on the findings, the organizations can enhance their employees' flourishing by providing the autonomy to control their work time, and adequate training to better handle COVID-19 impact and parental stress to have better and sustainable human resources. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).