Feeling normal in times of crisis: The psychological benefits of working.

Abstract

The present study examined whether gaining a sense of normalcy from working could be psychologically beneficial during a crisis. We conducted a longitudinal survey during the COVID-19 pandemic that tracked psychological distress and anxiety in two samples of adults working remotely or in the community in Canada (N = 124; 74.0% women; mean age 40.0 years; four time points between April and August 2020) and the United States (N = 539; 61.6% men; mean age 38.7 years; seven time points between April and October 2020). Multilevel modeling showed that a higher average sense of normalcy from working was associated with lower psychological distress in the Canadian sample and that a higher-than-usual sense of normalcy was associated with lower psychological distress and anxiety for both samples over and above problem-focused, emotion-focused, and support coping. This effect on anxiety decreased over time in the American sample, suggesting that the benefits of gaining a sense of normalcy from working were most important at the onset of the pandemic when people were initially dealing with changes from lockdown measures. Our findings suggest that working during crises can provide psychological benefits for some people by helping them maintain a sense of normalcy, which may influence primary and secondary appraisals central to the transactional model of stress and coping. Future research should explore the mechanisms through which gaining a sense of normalcy from working during crises can improve psychological outcomes and examine whether effects extend to personal-level crises such as bereavement or serious illness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)