The Role of Adaptability and Resistance to Change in Mitigating the Effects of Pandemic

Abstract

Background

Pandemic along with causing disruption in economy and health of the communities, has also exposed the vulnerabilities of the people and the government. Innumerable research papers reported that this is leading to an increase in psychological issues like depression, OCD, anxiety, etc.,. However, our past experiences with pandemics has shown that the survival of communities depends on the level of adaptability and change management. This study aims to observe the influence of the disruption in emotional health measured in terms of Level of Adaptability and Level of Resistance to Change as a result of Lockdown.

Objectives

(1) Assess the level of disruption in the emotional health (in terms of Level of Adaptability and Level of Resistance to Change) of the people due to this Lockdown. (2)Impact of this disruption on physical health.

Methodology

This is a cross-sectional survey of the urban Indian population. The sampling method used was the snow-ball sampling. Adaptability and Resistance to change have been considered as the measure of a person's emotional health and then correlated to their physical health.

Results

The study hypothesized that people underwent emotional disruption and that affected their physical health negatively. But our findings showed that people were happy and used this time to improve their lives and relationships. The study found age having a significant association with both adaptability and resistance to change. There was inverse correlation between Resistance to change and physical health. And the level of Adaptability was considerably high in participants who were greater than 30 years and participants who were Self-employed or salaried.

Conclusions

The disruption in the lives of people due to Lockdown has given ample time for families to reconnect and relationships to improve. People have had time to introspect and hence have adapted well to the impending crisis.

Citation

Padmashree, G.S., Mamatha, H.K., Bilimale, A.S., Kishor, M. and Gopi, A. (2022), "The Role of Adaptability and Resistance to Change in Mitigating the Effects of Pandemic", Kronenfeld, J.J. (Ed.) Health and Health Care Inequities, Infectious Diseases and Social Factors (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 39), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 59-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0275-495920220000039004