Search for meaning alleviated individual depressive symptoms during COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of optimism

IF 3.3 3区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

International Journal of Psychology Pub Date : 2024-12-22 DOI:10.1002/ijop.70001

Muzi Yuan, Tong Zhou, Jiayi Zhong, Yue Yin, Junsheng Liu, Biao Sang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantine measures have disrupted people's normal pace of life and created excessive pressure. The current study examined the mitigating effect of search for meaning in life on individual depressive symptoms and the mediating role of optimism during COVID-19 lockdown period. A total of 462 participants (M_age = 37.42 years, SD = 13.15, 166 males) residing in Wuhan, China were recruited online at the beginning of April 2020 when the city was still under lockdown measures. Data were collected four times spanning from April to May 2020, with an interval of roughly 2 weeks in between. The results indicated that search for meaning and optimism was positively correlated with each other concurrently, and both of them were negatively correlated with depressive symptoms. Specifically, search for meaning at T1 could positively predict optimism at T2, which in turn negatively predicted depressive symptoms at T3, suggesting that optimism acted as the mediator for the buffering effects of search for meaning on one's depressive symptoms. Results highlighted the protective role of search for meaning for individual psychological adjustment under such adverse situation as COVID-19 epidemic, and provided practical implications for people to deal with stressful period like quarantine.

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寻找意义缓解COVID-19大流行期间个体抑郁症状：乐观的中介作用。

新冠肺炎疫情和隔离措施扰乱了人们的正常生活节奏，造成了过大的压力。目前的研究考察了寻找生活意义对个体抑郁症状的缓解作用，以及在COVID-19封锁期间乐观情绪的中介作用。2020年4月初，武汉市仍处于封锁状态，在线招募了居住在武汉市的462名参与者（年龄37.42岁，SD = 13.15，男性166名）。数据收集了四次，时间跨度为2020年4月至5月，间隔时间约为2周。结果表明，寻找意义与乐观同时呈正相关，两者与抑郁症状呈负相关。具体而言，在T1阶段寻找意义可以正向预测T2阶段的乐观情绪，而乐观情绪反过来负向预测T3阶段的抑郁症状，这表明乐观情绪是意义寻找对抑郁症状的缓冲作用的中介。研究结果突出了在新冠肺炎疫情等不利情况下，意义寻找对个体心理调节的保护作用，并为人们应对隔离等压力期提供了现实启示。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

6.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Psychology (IJP) is the journal of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) and is published under the auspices of the Union. IJP seeks to support the IUPsyS in fostering the development of international psychological science. It aims to strengthen the dialog within psychology around the world and to facilitate communication among different areas of psychology and among psychologists from different cultural backgrounds. IJP is the outlet for empirical basic and applied studies and for reviews that either (a) incorporate perspectives from different areas or domains within psychology or across different disciplines, (b) test the culture-dependent validity of psychological theories, or (c) integrate literature from different regions in the world.