Working Papers
“COVID Angels Fighting Daily Demons? Mental Health of Healthcare Workers and Religion ” (with P. Bertoli, V.Grembi and V. Rattini) - PDF - RR European Economic Review
Relying on a unique survey experiment of more than 15,000 respondents in Italy conducted immediately after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we show that randomly priming religiosity in healthcare workers decreases their self-assessed level of mental distress. The effect is stronger for nurses (-11.2%) than for physicians (-7.6%). Similar results are also confirmed at the level of self-assessed concerns over different aspects of workers’ lives and personal networks, potential sources of distress. Consistent with the idea that religiosity serves as a coping mechanism, the effect is stronger for more impacted categories (females and hospital workers) and for respondents facing more stressful situations, such as being reassigned due to the COVID-19 emergency or working in a COVID-19-related specialty (e.g., emergency care), among others. Self-classifying as religious explains the larger impact of religious priming on physicians but not on nurses. We argue that the spiritual identity of nurses was more connected by a unique media campaign that identified them as COVID angels. Hence, ad hoc messages in times of distress might reinforce the positive effect of coping mechanisms.
Keywords: Healthcare Workers, Mental Health, COVID-19, Coping Mechanisms, Religiosity
"Women in Distress: Mental Health and the COVID19 Pandemic" (with V.Grembi and A.Rosso ) - PDF - RR Health Policy
Relying on a survey of more than 4,000 female respondents, we investigate the main determinants of women’s mental distress during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. We focus on two groups of variables to capture both the health and the economic emergency: present concerns and future expectations. Our results show that the main predictors of mental health are future expectations, such as the fear of losing a job, which is more relevant than concerns related to the spread of the virus. Younger women (less than 35), those lacking a high school degree, and those working in education or in remote work with school-aged children are in most distress. Using a panel fixed effects model that includes respondents to a re-call run in February 2021, we show that there was no adjustment to the new normal. Finally, using data on gender norms, we show that where the role of women is conceived in a more traditional way, the level of mental distress as driven by future employment is lower, suggesting that women’s expectations for their role in society do play a relevant role in self-assessed well-being
Keywords: Mental Health, COVID-19, Expectations, Gender Stereotypes
Using a new measure of the strength of gender stereotypes defined at the individual level and based on responses to a survey conducted with more than 4,500 Italian women in July 2020, we show that women with stronger stereotypes are more likely to state that they know a victim of violence but are not more likely to state that violence (physical or psychological) is widespread in their area of residence. They are also more likely to rank behaviours meant to control a victim’s interpersonal contacts and access to financial resources as more serious than physically and sexually violent behaviours and to justify violent acts using distressing, event-specific circumstances (e.g., a period of economic distress) rather than the deep-seated psychological issues of the attackers. Finally, when personal stereotyping is stronger, respondents are more likely to suggest that a hypothetical victim of violence either not react to or deal directly with the partner rather than look for formal help. Using different controls for the impact of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on the respondents’ personal and economic lives does not affect our main findings.
Keywords: Gender Stereotypes, Domestic Violence Perceptions, Justifications for Violent Behaviour, COVID-19