Psychosocial adaptation to working from home

Abstract

In this study, the psychosocial adjustment to working from home was surveyed on samples of 201 respondents from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 201 from Montenegro, 221 from North Macedonia, and 408 from Serbia. The research was carried out using a questionnaire with 13 questions on the Psychosocial Adjustment Scale, specially created for this research. This research aims to describe the positive and negative aspects of the adjustment to working from home. Additionally, the research will examine the similarities and differences among respondents from four countries of the Western Balkans. The findings showed that the psychosocial adaptation of the respondents was positive, in general. However, respondents in all four countries highlighted the lack of time for socializing with close friends. They also underlined the feeling of social isolation due to working from home as the most difficult. The authors noticed that one of the reasons for the challenges of enduring social isolation and loneliness is the more emphasized collectivist patterns of sociability in the countries of the Western Balkans than in Western countries. Respondents from Montenegro show significantly weaker psychosocial adaptation in several aspects compared to respondents from the other three countries. In this regard, the respondents from North Macedonia are similar to a certain extent, however, the respondents from B &H and Serbia are the most similar to each other. The authors provided possible explanations for these similarities and differences.