Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has majorly disrupted many aspects of people’s lives, provoking psychosocial distress among students. People’s positive and negative attitudes towards the past, present and future were a dispositional pre–COVID-19 reality. Faced with a pandemic, people have reported disruptions in the speed of passing time. People can shift their attention more towards the past, present or future when major changes in society occur. These aspects of psychological time would be key to understanding the quality of psychosocial adjustment to the pandemic. We hypothesized that dispositional time attitudes impact psychosocial distress because they would trigger situational changes in our time perception and temporal focus.

Methods

One hundred and forty-four university students in Uruguay responded to self-report questionnaires online while in-person classes were cancelled. Students reported on shifts in temporal focus, changes in time awareness and dispositional time attitudes. Reactive psychological, social and learning environment distress were reported.

Results

Students reported substantial changes in time perception and temporal focus. A correlation matrix showed significant relationships between time attitudes, focus and awareness. For example, psychological distress was correlated with negative time attitudes, slower passage of time, boredom, blurred sense of time and shifting focus to the past. Mediation models were derived. The indirect effect of time attitudes on psychological distress was significant through past focus.

Discussion

Dispositional time attitudes would impact students’ capacity to cope with the pandemic. Situational shifts in temporal focus and perception were prevalent and can be viewed as temporal coping mechanisms in the wake of powerful societal change. Our mediation models showed that those with negative time attitudes experienced more psychological distress because they shifted their attention to the past. Future directions for research and practical implications are discussed.

中文翻译：

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大流行之后的扰乱时间：性格时间态度、时间感知和时间焦点

介绍

COVID-19 大流行严重扰乱了人们生活的许多方面，引发了学生的社会心理困扰。人们对过去、现在和未来的积极和消极态度是 COVID-19 之前的一种倾向性现实。面对大流行，人们报告说时间流逝的速度受到干扰。当社会发生重大变化时，人们可以将注意力更多地转移到过去、现在或未来。心理时间的这些方面将是了解心理社会适应大流行的质量的关键。我们假设性格性时间态度会影响社会心理压力，因为它们会引发我们时间感知和时间焦点的情境变化。

方法

乌拉圭 144 名大学生在网上回答了自我报告问卷，而面授课程被取消。学生们报告了时间焦点的变化、时间意识的变化和时间态度的变化。报告了反应性心理、社会和学习环境的困扰。

结果

学生报告了时间感知和时间焦点的重大变化。相关矩阵显示了时间态度、焦点和意识之间的显着关系。例如，心理困扰与消极的时间态度、时间过得慢、无聊、时间感模糊和将注意力转移到过去有关。中介模型被推导出来。通过过去的关注，时间态度对心理困扰的间接影响是显着的。

讨论

处置时间的态度会影响学生应对大流行的能力。时间焦点和感知的情境变化很普遍，可以被视为强大的社会变革之后的时间应对机制。我们的中介模型表明，那些具有消极时间态度的人经历了更多的心理困扰，因为他们将注意力转移到了过去。讨论了未来的研究方向和实际意义。