Creativity as a Means to Well-Being in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic: Results of a Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought about unprecedented uncertainty and challenges to the worldwide economy and people’s everyday life. Anecdotal and scientific evidence has documented the existence of a positive relationship between the experience of crisis and creativity. Though this appears to be ubiquitous, the crisis-creativity-well-being relationship has not been sufficiently examined across countries and using a working adult sample. The current study drew on a sample consisting of 1,420 employees from China (n = 489, 40% females), Germany (n = 599, 47% females), and the United States (n = 332, 43% females) to examine whether creativity can function as an effective means to cope with crisis and to achieve both flourishing and social well-being. Multivariate analyses showed that perceived impact of COVID-19 was positively related to creative process engagement, which was positively related to employees’ self-reported creative growth. Creative growth was associated with a higher level of flourishing well-being. This sequential mediation model was significant across the three samples. Creativity also mediated the relationship between perceived impact of COVID-19 and social well-being (social connectedness), but this connection was only found for the Chinese sample. Further data analyses revealed that individualism moderated this serial mediation model in that the positive coping effect of creativity on both flourishing and social well-being was stronger for individuals who hold more collectivistic views. Results of the study have implications for crisis management, personal development, and positive functioning of individuals and society.

A Cross-National Study of COVID-19 Impact and Future Possibilities Among Emerging Adults: The Mediating Role of Intolerance of Uncertainty

“…That is, despite emerging adults experiencing different degrees of impact due to COVID-19, the processes they experience are the same across emerging adults in the countries we studied. Our results are in line with the study of Tang et al (2021) who found that the perceived impact of COVID-19 had the same effect on individual flourishing across different nations (the US, Germany, and China).…”

Being creative during lockdown: The relationship between creative potential and COVID‐19‐related psychological distress in narcolepsy type 1

“…Intriguingly, very recent studies have shown that creativity acts as a mitigating factor of the detrimental effects of COVID‐19 restrictions on wellbeing (Tang et al, 2021 ; Ying et al, 2020 ) in healthy subjects. Considering these findings and the tight relationship between creativity and narcolepsy, in the present study we aimed at exploring whether NT1 patients’ creative abilities could affect patients’ wellbeing during the first Italian generalised lockdown (in the period starting from March 10 until May 17, 2020; Government of Italy, 2020 ).…”

Integration of the Confucian Culture on Cross-Cultural Conflict Management: The Role of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Our findings imply that Chinese enterprises should consider new strategies to manage cross-culture conflicts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic (Tang et al, 2021). First, the management of the enterprises values the importance of learning Confucian culture.…”