Distressed yet bonded

A longitudinal investigation of the Covid-19 pandemic’s silver lining effects on life satisfaction

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8717499
AutoresYanjun Guan (0000-0003-1782-1027, autor de correspondencia), Da Jiang (0000-0002-8505-7078), Chaorong Wu (0000-0002-1569-0978), Hong Deng (0000-0002-6033-0162), S S Su (0000-0001-5670-5139), Emma E Buchtel (0000-0002-9417-9106), Sylvia Xiaohua Chen (0000-0001-7237-6523)
Año2023
Volumen79
Número2
Páginas268-284
Fecha de publicación2023-07-13
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Psychologist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-066X • E-ISSN: 1935-990X
EditorialAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/amp0001188
PMID37439754
OpenAlexW4384120408
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas9

It is a common understanding that the 2019 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) significantly harmed mental health. However, findings on changes in overall life satisfaction have been mixed and inconclusive. To address this puzzling phenomenon, we draw upon the domain-specific perspective of well-being and research on catastrophe compassion and propose that the pandemic can have opposing effects on mental health and communal satisfaction, which then differently relate to people's overall life satisfaction. Longitudinal analyses of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) Survey of Australia ( N = 12,093) showed that while there was a greater decrease in mental health in the first COVID-19 pandemic year (2019-2020) than in the previous years (2017-2019), an increase in communal satisfaction also occurred, demonstrating a potential silver lining effect of the pandemic on people's satisfaction with family, community, and neighborhood. Moreover, consistent with socioemotional selectivity theory, changes in mental health, communal satisfaction, and life satisfaction were related to age, such that older adults generally reported less harmful and more beneficial psychological changes. We further found that age was associated with stronger associations of mental health and communal satisfaction with life satisfaction during the pandemic year. Overall, our findings speak to the importance of communal life in life satisfaction during the pandemic and age-related differences in the process, shedding light on the need to devise customized support to address inequalities in pandemic effects on public well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Developmental psychology · Disease · Life satisfaction · Longitudinal study · MEDLINE · Mental health · Pandemic · Political science · Psychiatry · PsycINFO · Public health · Socioemotional selectivity theory · Well-being · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Health disparities and outcomes · Medicine · Nursing · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Social Psychology