Improving social belonging, meaning, and mental health during COVID-19: A self-affirmation approach.

IF 3.4 2区 心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL
Emotion Pub Date : 2025-02-17 DOI:10.1037/emo0001498
Isabelle Q Tay, Geoffrey L Cohen
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Abstract

The topics of social belonging, meaning and purpose in life, and mental health have enduring significance, and our objective was to assess the efficacy of two values-affirmation (VA)-based interventions in forestalling critical psychological costs of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both were based on self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988) and sought to help people stay connected with their core values during this stressful time. One intervention was a one-time VA activity in which participants wrote about important values and were reminded of the value of focusing on core values during uncertain times. A second, elaborated version further guided participants to incorporate brief, values-aligned daily activities. A longitudinal randomized controlled experiment conducted in the United States and Italy revealed an upward trend in social belonging and mental health among participants in the VA conditions-a surprising and positive outcome during a time of looming fear. The trajectories of social belonging and meaning were altered in the intervention conditions, yielding immediate benefits, while long-term benefits (4 weeks postintervention) on social belonging and mental health were confined to men, who experienced poorer psychological outcomes as the pandemic progressed. Additionally, socioeconomic status moderated intervention effects on social belonging, primarily benefitting participants of lower socioeconomic status. Surprisingly, culture and other risk factors (e.g., financial impact of COVID-19; living alone) did not moderate intervention effects. Discussion centers on how tailored VAs can interrupt a recursive cycle triggered by threats to self-integrity, and the potential of social psychologically informed interventions for enhancing belonging, meaning and mental health in face of acute stressors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

在COVID-19期间改善社会归属感、意义和心理健康:一种自我肯定的方法。
社会归属、生活意义和目的以及心理健康等主题具有持久的意义,我们的目标是评估两种基于价值观肯定(VA)的干预措施在预防COVID-19大流行的关键心理成本方面的有效性。两者都是基于自我肯定理论(Steele, 1988),并试图帮助人们在这个充满压力的时期与他们的核心价值观保持联系。一项干预是一次性的VA活动,参与者写下重要的价值观,并提醒他们在不确定时期关注核心价值观的价值。第二个详细的版本进一步指导参与者将简短的、与价值观一致的日常活动结合起来。在美国和意大利进行的一项纵向随机对照实验显示,在退伍军人事务部的条件下,参与者的社会归属感和心理健康呈上升趋势——这是一个令人惊讶的积极结果,在恐惧隐约出现的时候。在干预条件下,社会归属和意义的轨迹发生了改变,产生了直接效益,而社会归属和心理健康方面的长期效益(干预后4周)仅限于男性,随着疫情的发展,他们的心理结果较差。此外,社会经济地位调节了社会归属的干预效应,主要有利于社会经济地位较低的参与者。令人惊讶的是,文化和其他风险因素(例如,2019冠状病毒病的财务影响;独居)并没有缓和干预效果。讨论集中在量身定制的VAs如何中断由自我完整性威胁引发的递归循环,以及面对急性压力源时增强归属感、意义和心理健康的社会心理干预的潜力。(PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA,版权所有)。
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来源期刊
Emotion
Emotion PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL-
CiteScore
8.40
自引率
7.10%
发文量
325
审稿时长
8 weeks
期刊介绍: Emotion publishes significant contributions to the study of emotion from a wide range of theoretical traditions and research domains. The journal includes articles that advance knowledge and theory about all aspects of emotional processes, including reports of substantial empirical studies, scholarly reviews, and major theoretical articles. Submissions from all domains of emotion research are encouraged, including studies focusing on cultural, social, temperament and personality, cognitive, developmental, health, or biological variables that affect or are affected by emotional functioning. Both laboratory and field studies are appropriate for the journal, as are neuroimaging studies of emotional processes.
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