Abstract

Objective

Sense of purpose has been associated with greater health and well-being, even in daily contexts. However, it is unclear whether effects would hold in daily life during COVID-19, when people may have difficulty seeing a path towards their life goals.

Design

The current study investigated whether purposefulness predicted daily positive affect, negative affect, and physical symptoms. Participants (n = 831) reported on these variables during the first weeks of the COVID-19 response in North America.

Main outcome measures

Participants completed daily surveys asking them for daily positive events, stressors, positive affect, negative affect, physical symptoms, and purposefulness.

Results

Purposefulness at between- and within-person levels predicted less negative affect and physical symptoms, but more positive affect at the daily level. Between-person purposefulness interacted with positive events when predicting negative and positive affect, suggesting that purposeful people may be less reactive to positive events. However, between-person purposefulness also interacted with daily stressors, insofar that stressors predicted greater declines in positive affect for purposeful people.

Conclusion

Being a purposeful person holds positive implications for daily health and well-being, even during the pandemic context. However, purposefulness may hold some consequences unique to the COVID-19 context, which merit attention in future research.

中文翻译：

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大流行中的目的性和日常生活：预测 COVID-19 响应最初几周的日常影响和身体症状

摘要

客观的

即使在日常情况下，目标感也与更大的健康和福祉相关联。然而，目前尚不清楚在 COVID-19 期间的日常生活中是否会产生影响，当时人们可能很难看到实现人生目标的道路。

设计

目前的研究调查了目的性是否能预测日常的积极情绪、消极情绪和身体症状。参与者 (n = 831) 在北美 COVID-19 响应的前几周报告了这些变量。

主要观察指标

参与者完成了每日调查，询问他们每天的积极事件、压力源、积极影响、消极影响、身体症状和目的性。

结果

在人际和人际层面的目的性预测负面影响和身体症状较少，但在日常层面上会产生更多积极影响。在预测消极和积极影响时，人与人之间的目的性与积极事件相互作用，这表明有目的的人对积极事件的反应可能较小。然而，人与人之间的目的性也与日常压力源相互作用，因为压力源预测有目的的人的积极影响会更大程度地下降。

结论

做一个有目的的人对日常健康和福祉有积极的影响，即使在大流行期间也是如此。然而，有目的性可能会产生一些 COVID-19 背景特有的后果，在未来的研究中值得关注。