How are you holding up? Personality, cognitive and social predictors of a perceived shift in subjective well-being during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

While well-being is known to be mainly predicted by relatively stable personality traits and demographic factors, under circumstances of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the role of these predictors may be attenuated, and more situational factors may come into play. In the present study, we examined those relatively stable predictors of well-being along with COVID-19 specific factors, such as the perception of health and economic threat, unrealistic optimism, lack of control, trust in government regulations, and the endorsement of conspiracy beliefs. The data collection took place in early November 2020, when the second wave in Slovakia started to gain momentum and the strict lockdown was issued. Slovak adults ( N = 1020) reported their current positive and negative affect and current, as well as estimated pre-pandemic and predicted future life satisfaction. The results showed that positive and negative affect was predicted mainly by extraversion and negative emotionality. On the other hand, life satisfaction, and its perceived change from before the pandemic and in three months, was predicted mainly by COVID-19 factors, especially perceived economical threat, unrealistic optimism, and trust in governmental regulations. We discuss the importance of these factors when considering the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on peoples' well-being.

Predictors of well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic: The importance of financial satisfaction and neuroticism

“…For instance, extraversion was not significantly correlated with well‐being during the pandemic (Gubler et al, 2021 ), even though neuroticism remained strongly related to lower well‐being. Indeed, the pandemic‐era studies found that the associations of neuroticism with SWB generally remained robust (Gubler et al, 2021 ; Kohút et al, 2021 ), even when compared to the prepandemic period (Anglim & Horwood, 2021 ). This suggests that neuroticism remains a key determinant of SWB despite the pandemic, which supports the temperament perspective—that is, the strong neuroticism‐negative affect relation stems largely from the biological basis of neuroticism (Gross et al, 1998 ).…”

“…Although the direct effect of extraversion on positive affect remained after controlling for social activity (Lucas et al, 2008 ), it is likely that this effect would be diminished during the pandemic. Indeed, though extraversion was significantly associated with SWB during the pandemic (Anglim & Horwood, 2021 ; Kohút et al, 2021 ), this extraversion‐positive affect relationship was attenuated as compared to prepandemic (Anglim & Horwood, 2021 ). Gubler et al ( 2021 ) also found that associations of extraversion with well‐being and loneliness were weak during the pandemic, suggesting that restricting social activities weakens the positive link between extraversion and well‐being.…”

You before me: How vertical collectivism and feelings of threat predicted more socially desirable behaviour during COVID-19 pandemic

“…On the other hand, an economic threat was shown to be a predictor of having more questionable health beliefs and avoiding preventive regulations in another study (Čavojová et al, 2022 ). Economic threat is also connected with lower life satisfaction during the pandemic (Kohút et al, 2022 ). Similarly, Imbriano et al ( 2021 ) found that neither perceived risk of contracting the disease, nor perceived risk of being seriously ill correlated with health behavior, but that only perceived economic, social and emotional costs did.…”

“…Feelings of threat were measured with three items, taken from Kohút et al ( 2022 ), related to how threatened participants felt by COVID-19 when thinking about their health, quality of life and economic and social consequences. Participants answered on a 7-point scale (1 = not threatened at all , 7 = extremely threatened ).…”

Finding Someone to Blame: The Link Between COVID-19 Conspiracy Beliefs, Prejudice, Support for Violence, and Other Negative Social Outcomes

“…Participants first answered several demographic questions including experience with COVID-19, items regarding news exposure, anxiety, lack of control, conspiracy theories, decreased prosocial behavior, violence acceptance, and trust in government regulations. They also answered several other measures not reported here regarding well-being, scientific reasoning, numeracy, and attitudes toward science, vaccination attitudes and vaccination intentions, personality and following the government antipandemic regulations, which were part of two separate research projects Kohút et al, 2021).…”