Being a Female Domestic Worker During the Pandemic Period from the Hope Perspective

Abstract

Pandemic processes are important factors triggering the changes in the psychological and sociological structure of society. The COVID-19 outbreak has embodied many variables affecting people's lives in several terms in Turkey as in the whole world. People have appeared to face many psychosocial and economic difficulties due to the social and economic conditions changing with the pandemic period. During this period, domestic workers are the first people who experience these problems in multiple ways. Hope is an important concept in terms of protecting and improving the well-being of domestic worker women who have serious problems in terms of social security, social relations and economic income. Therefore, this research aims at examining the hope mechanisms developed by female domestic workers against the difficulties they experience during the pandemic period between March-June 2020. As it known, hope increases the well-being of people. 15 female domestic workers participated in the research, which was designed in a descriptive phenomenological pattern. The analyses obtained as a result of the interviews held with the female domestic workers revealed that the findings were related to the themes of sources of hope and adaptation process during the pandemic. When the sources of motivation in the structuring of hope are reviewed, it is noteworthy that they are divided into the subthemes of social and inner sources. Considering the relationship of hope with the adaptation to the pandemic period, on the other hand, the subthemes of efforts on reducing concerns, rearrangement of the financial life and view of the future come to the fore.

Keywords

• female domestic workers
• COVID-19
• hope.

Kaynakça

1. Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A., Kovacs, M., & Garrison, B. (1985). Hopelessness and eventual suicide: A 10-year prospective study of patients hospitalized with suicidal ideation. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142(5), 559–563. doi: 10.1176/ajp.142.5.559
2. Chirombe, T., Benza, S., Munetsi, E., & Zirima, H. (2020). Coping mechanisms adopted by people during the Covid-19 lockdown in Zimbabwe. Business Excellence and Management, 10(1), 33-45.
3. Creswell, J. W. (2013). Nitel araştırma yöntemleri: Beş yaklaşıma göre nitel araştırma ve araştırma deseni. M. Bütün ve S. Demir (Trans. Edt.). Siyasal.
4. Domestic Workers Solidarity Union (Ev İşçileri Dayanışma Sendikası). (2020). Peki ya en alttakiler… Ev İşçileri Dayanışma Sendikası Covid-19 Raporu. http://dspace.ceid.org.tr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1/382/ekutuphane3.5.2.1.25.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
5. Erikson, E. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. W.W. Norton & Company.
6. Giorgi, A. (2009). The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: A modified Husserlian approach. Duquesne University Press.
7. International Labor Organization. (2020). ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work. Third edition Updated estimates and analysis. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_743146.pdf
8. IMECE Domestic Workers Union. (2020). İmece Ev İşçileri Sendikası Covid-19 salgın süreci raporu. https://www.catlakzemin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/imece.pdf

9. Jakovljevic, M., Bjedov, S., Jaksic, N., & Jakovljevic, I. (2020). COVID-19 pandemia and public and global mental health from the perspective of global health security. Psychiatria Danubina, 32(1), 6-14. https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2020.6.
10. Jiang Hj, Nan J, Lv Zy, & Yang J. (2020). Psychological impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic on Chinese people: Exposure, post-traumatic stress symptom, and emotion regulation. Asian Pac J Trop Med, 13, 252-9. https://doi.org/10.4103/1995-7645.281614.
11. Mazza, C., Ricci, E., Biondi, S., Colasanti, M., Ferracuti, S., Napoli, C., & Roma, P. (2020). Nationwide survey of psychological distress among Italian people during the COVID-19 pandemic: Immediate psychological responses and associated factors. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17, 3165. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093165.
12. Miller, J., & Powers, M. (1988). Development of an instrument to measure hope. Nursing Research, 37(1), 6-10.
13. Morse, J. M. (2000). Determining Sample Size. Qualitative Health Research, 10 (1), 3-5.
14. Morse, J., & Doberneck, B. (1995). Delineating the concept of hope. Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 27(4), 277-285. doi: 10.1111/j.1547-5069.1995.tb00888.x.
15. Ong, A. D., Edwards, L. M., & Bergeman, C. S. (2006). Hope as a source of resilience in later adulthood. Personality and Individual Differences, 41(7), 1263-1273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.03.028.
16. Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Sage.
17. Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. American Psychological Association.
18. Shanmugam, H., Juhari, J. A., Nair, P., Ken, C. S., & Guan, N. C. (2020). Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in Malaysia: A single thread of hope. Malaysian Journal of Psychiatry, 29(1), 1-7.
19. Shechter, A., Diaz, F., Moise, N., Anstey, D. E., Ye, S., Agarwal, S., ... & Claassen, J. (2020). Psychological distress, coping behaviors, and preferences for support among New York healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. General hospital psychiatry. 66, 1-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2020.06.007
20. Sheldon, K. M., Kasser, T., Smith, K., & Share, T. (2002). Personal goals and psychological growth: testing an intervention to enhance goal attainment and personality integration. Journal of personality, 70(1), 5-31. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.00176
21. Simmons, B. L., Gooty, J., Nelson, D. L., & Little, L. M. (2009). Secure attachment: Implications for hope, trust, burnout, and performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 30(2), 233-247. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.585
22. Snyder, C. R. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the Mind. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 249-275. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1304_01.
23. Snyder, C. R. (Ed.). (2000). The birth and growth of hope. Academic Press.
24. Southwick, S. M., Vythilingam, M., & Charney, D. S. (2005). The psychobiology of depression and resilience to stress: implications for prevention and treatment. Annual review of clinical psychology, 1, 255–291. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.1.102803.143948
25. Soylu, Ö. B. (2020). Türkiye ekonomisinde COVID-19’un sektörel etkileri. Avrasya Sosyal ve Ekonomi Araştırmaları Dergisi, 7(5), 169-185.
26. Walsh, F. (2016). Strengthening family resilience. Guilford Press.
27. Walsh, F. (2020). Loss and resilience in the time of COVID-19: Meaning making, hope, and transcendence. Family Process, Early View, 1-14. doi: 10.1111/famp.12588.
28. Wenham, C., Smith, J., & Morgan, R. (2020). COVID-19: the gendered impacts of the outbreak. The Lancet, 395(10227), 846-848. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30526-2
29. Yıldırım, M., & Arslan, G. (2020). Exploring the associations between resilience, dispositional hope, subjective well-being, and psychological health among adults during early stage of COVID-19. file:///C:/Users/rengin/Desktop/indirilenle/Preprint_Exploring%20the%20Associations%20Between%20Resilience,%20Dispositional%20Hope,%20Well-Being,%20and%20Psychological%20Health%20Among%20(1).pdf