Investigation of Individual, Familial and Social Factors Protecting Subjective Well-being in the COVID-19 Epidemic Process

With the project, individual (resilience, perceived stress, future anxiety, COVID-19 stress and health traumatic behaviors), and familial (family communication, care sharing, care burden and relationship satisfaction) variables collected from a representative sample of the Turkish urban population In this study, it was aimed to determine the situation in the process and to examine the effects of these variables on subjective well-being. The results of the study on relationship satisfaction and sharing of home and child care responsibilities collected from 1175 people before and during the epidemic showed that the majority of the group had a decrease in their satisfaction with their life and relationships during the COVID-19 process, and that men were able to contribute less to home and family care work in this process than before. Due diligence analyzes of the study during the epidemic of 1832 people show that housewives perceive themselves as under a high stress burden with care responsibilities, and working women, although they are worried about their future, have higher life satisfaction than other groups. It has been observed that women are in a worse condition than men in terms of weight and smoking increase rates that create health risks. The results of the structural equation model examining the effects of these variables on subjective well-being of the research show that individual resilience has an indirect but strong effect on the increase in subjective well-being by causing a decrease in the stress and caregiving burden experiences of the individual. Mechanisms within and outside the family should be developed to reduce the burden of caregiving for individuals, especially housewives. The change in Turkey's work culture towards enabling employees to devote time to family responsibilities will be accelerated by government policies and regulations such as supportive family/care leave and "paternity leave". The results of the study show that housewives are afflicted by the burden of caregiving, and working women have high life satisfaction, although they are worried about their future. This positive difference in life satisfaction points out the importance of the opportunity to contribute to society beyond family care for the subjective well-being of individuals. It is seen that the opportunities and support that will be provided to our women beyond their home care responsibilities will increase their subjective well-being.