ABSTRACT
The focus of the study was the moderating effect of situation-specific support on the relationship between threat appraisal and stress levels experienced by faculty in Indian higher education institutions during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal data were collected from 77 respondents at two time periods. Time 1 was one month after educational institutions started online classes, and time 2 was one month subsequent to the first data collection. Given the small sample size, Partial Least Square regression was used to test the hypotheses. There was a significant moderating effect of support for online teaching on the relation between threat appraisal at time 1 and task stress at time 2. Threat appraisal was also found to have a significant positive effect on role and task stress at time 2. Support did not have a significant direct relationship between role and task stress. Unlike the transactional model of stress, the moderation hypothesis implies that the provision of support can have an indirect effect on important outcomes for individuals. However, previous studies have found conflicting results – we 54attribute the significant results in our study to the specific measures we used to capture the study variables. This study has important implications for policy as the results indicate that helping individuals deal with challenging situations that are beyond the control of the individual and the organization can dampen the effect of threats on task stress.
