Exploring the association between coronavirus stress, meaning in life, psychological flexibility, and subjective well-being 

ABSTRACT

There has been a call to action from much of the community to urgently investigate stress and well-being during the global health crisis instigated by COVID-19. This study seeks to investigate well-being, meaning in life, and psychological flexibility in relation to COVID-19 stress. Participants of the study consisted of 417 students from a public university, and they were 40.3% male and 59.7% female, ranging in age from 18 to 40 years (M = 23.36, SD = 5.96). The study’s findings indicated that meaning in life and psychological flexibility mediated the effect of coronavirus stress on student well-being. Psychological flexibility also mitigated the effect of stress on meaning in life. The study findings offer implications for mental health professionals and officials responding to COVID-19 and provide insights into future planning and preparedness for disasters of this scale that may occur in future years.

KEYWORDS:

• Well-being
• meaningful life
• covid-19
• psychological flexibility
• positive psychology

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent informed

Consent was obtained from all participants included in the study

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article