From Stress to Serenity: Investigating the Impact of Financial Stress and Initial Detachment on Psychological Detachment from Work in Self- Employed Workers

The present research investigates the effects of gain-framed messages on psychological detachment from work among self-employed workers in the UK with gain-framed messaging. The research also aims to investigate the moderating role of financial stress as well as explore the role of earlier psychological detachment in the effect of gain-framed messages. With Prolific Academic, the research team collected data from 226 individuals using a two-wave after the exclusion of some participants, between-subjects design. Three groups of participants were formed: a control group, those who received a message about health benefits, and those who received a message about performance enhancement. This research partially fills a gap in the literature by focusing on the difficulties encountered by the self-employed (as opposed to employees), thus encouraging research and publication of articles on this subject. Additionally, the results show that financial stress did not significantly moderate the...Show moreThe present research investigates the effects of gain-framed messages on psychological detachment from work among self-employed workers in the UK with gain-framed messaging. The research also aims to investigate the moderating role of financial stress as well as explore the role of earlier psychological detachment in the effect of gain-framed messages. With Prolific Academic, the research team collected data from 226 individuals using a two-wave after the exclusion of some participants, between-subjects design. Three groups of participants were formed: a control group, those who received a message about health benefits, and those who received a message about performance enhancement. This research partially fills a gap in the literature by focusing on the difficulties encountered by the self-employed (as opposed to employees), thus encouraging research and publication of articles on this subject. Additionally, the results show that financial stress did not significantly moderate the effect of performance- gain messages (vs. health-gain messages) on psychological detachment. As a results, the effectiveness of performance-gain messages (vs. health-gain messages) in increasing detachment does not depend on self-employed workers’ levels of financial stress. This study implies that psychological detachment isn't distinctively influenced by the kind of communication (health or performance-related), regardless of the degree of financial stress. The aforementioned findings underscore the significance of customized messaging strategies in fostering well-being among independent contractors, stressing the crucial interaction between content uniqueness and personal financial situations. Furthermore, the exploratory analysis examined whether the initial detachment from work had an impact on how gain messages influenced later detachment. While other factors explained later detachment, initial detachment from work itself did not make the messages any more or less effective.Show less

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From Stress to Serenity: Investigating the Impact of Financial Stress and Initial Detachment on Psychological Detachment from Work in Self- Employed Workers