The role of meaning in life in psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anxiety Stress Coping
; 36(1): 67-82, 2023 Jan.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36062483
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE:
Meaning in life may function as a protective factor in the context of potentially traumatic experiences, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated the associations between meaning and psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, COVID-19-related PTSD) prospectively and cross-sectionally. We hypothesized that meaning inversely predicts peri-pandemic distress and that meaning moderates the association between being negatively affected by the pandemic and distress. We additionally explored cross-sectional associations between meaning subcomponents and distress and a meaning violations perspective.METHODS:
Undergraduate students (N = 109) completed questionnaires before (October 2019 to March 2020; meaning, anxiety) and during the pandemic (April to June 2020; meaning, meaning subcomponents, depression, anxiety, PTSD).RESULTS:
Correcting for family-wise errors, meaning prospectively predicted less depression and anxiety, but not PTSD. Correcting for family-wise errors, peri-pandemic meaning was consistently related with peri-pandemic distress. Meaning did not moderate the link between being affected by the pandemic and distress. The meaning subcomponent comprehension was most strongly related with distress and a meaning violations perspective was partly supported.CONCLUSION:
Meaning emerged as a significant correlate of peri-pandemic distress. Current findings should be replicated longitudinally and experimentally to establish their robustness and to examine the causal influence of meaning on distress.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Angústia Psicológica
/
COVID-19
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article