key: cord-0949094-ujma0f7s
authors: Yang, Ziyan; Ji, Li-Jun; Yang, Ying; Wang, Yuqi; Zhu, Lifang; Cai, Huajian
title: Meaning Making Helps Cope with COVID-19: A Longitudinal Study
date: 2021-01-21
journal: Pers Individ Dif
DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110670
sha: 86634e09ff864d8abe1ad94fc8e34785867a8262
doc_id: 949094
cord_uid: ujma0f7s

Meaning making is a useful coping strategy in negative situations. We investigated whether making meaning in negative experiences (MINE) would help people cope with COVID-19. We conducted a three-wave longitudinal study (N = 2364) three months before, during, and after the COVID-19 outbreak in China. Results showed that participants reported increased tendency of MINE during the COVID-19 outbreak than three months before the outbreak. Moreover, both initial MINE and the increased MINE predict less psychological distress including depression, anxiety, and stress, during and three months after the outbreak. Perceived benefits and costs of the COVID-19 mediated the long-term effect. These findings not only provide novel evidence for the meaning making model but also shed light on the underlying mechanism, suggesting an effective strategy to cope with stressful events such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has posed a huge threat to people all over the world. The present research examined how people make meaning in response to such threatening situations and thereby achieve better psychological adjustment. In the following section, we reviewed existing research on the psychological impacts of the COVID-19, and then elaborated meaning making as a coping strategy, before presenting empirical study.

As one of the most serious pandemics in the past century, the ongoing COVID-19 has produced various psychological, economic and political influences. Over the past months, a surge in research into the psychological impacts of the COVID-19 has been witnessed (Boyraz & Legros, 2020; Van Bavel et al., 2020) . Among various domains, the influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological health have received most attention. Early research from China, where the pandemic struck first, revealed that the CODID-19 pandemic can lead to higher level of psychological distress such as panic, stress, anxiety, depression, psychoticism, obsessive compulsion, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and sleep problems (Cao et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020; Qiu et al., 2020; Tian et al., 2020; Wang, Pan, et al., 2020; 2007 , Ching, Martinson, & Wong, 2012 Park, Edmondson, Fenster, & Blank, 2008) , people suffering from depression (Hayes, Beevers, Feldman, Laurenceau, & Perlman, 2005) , and people who confronted with negative life events such as miscarriage (Nikčević, & Nicolaides, 2014) , bereavement (Holland, Currier, & Neimeyer, 2006) , and September 11 terrorist attacks (Ai, Cascio, Santangelo, & Evans-Campbell, 2005) .

A possible mechanism for the utility of meaning making in coping with negative situations is that meaning making process enables people to reframe their negative experiences more positively, given that positive reframing of negative experiences is a core determinant of adaptive adjustment (Ching et al., 2012; Pakenham & Cox, 2009; Sears, Stanton, & Danoff-Burg, 2003) . Indeed, meaning making has been found to be associated with better adjustment among cancer survivors through deriving positive meanings from their cancer experiences (Park et al., 2008) . More relevantly, the latest research showed that during the outbreak of COIVD-19, people who perceived less negative impacts of the pandemic reported lower level of psychological distress (Jiang, Nan, Lv, & Yang, 2020; Wang, Xia, et al., 2020) .

The current research focused on a special kind of meaning making strategythe tendency of seeing Meaning in Negative Experiences (MINE). MINE has been operationalized as "general positive beliefs about negative experiences and tendency to actively reflect on the meaning or value of negative experiences" (p7, Khei, 2019) . cope with COVID-19? This is the question we aimed to address in the current research.

We reported a three-wave longitudinal study to examine whether and how MINE would help cope with COVID-19. A large sample of Chinese college students was assessed at three time points: The first wave was administered before the outbreak of COVID-19 (T1;

October, 2019), which was a part of freshmen screening test; The second wave was administered during the COVID-19 outbreak (T2; February, 2020); The third wave was conducted when the pandemic has almost subsided ((T3; May, 2020).

Based on the existing conceptualization of and research about meaning making and MINE as above reviewed, we predicted that 1) the outbreak of COVID-19 could elevated the level of MINE; 2) MINE could help people cope with the pandemic; 3) positive reframing of the pandemic would account for the benefits of meaning making. Accordingly, we proposed six specific hypotheses: 1) Participants' tendency of MINE would increase from T1 to T2 and decrease from T2 to T3 (Hypothesis 1); 2) People with higher initial MINE at T1 would manifest less psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety and stress) at T2 (Hypothesis 2) and T3 (Hypothesis 3); 3) The enhanced MINE from T1 to T2 would promote psychological adjustment (i.e., reduce depression, anxiety and stress) at T2 (Hypothesis 4) and at T3 (Hypothesis 5); 4) positive reframing of the pandemic (i.e., perception of more benefits and less costs) would mediate the benefits of MINE (Hypothesis 6). We tested these hypotheses in the current longitudinal study.

J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Journal Pre-proof All participants were college students from Zhejiang Ocean University in China. As a part of a psychological screening test among first-year university students, the first-wave of data was collected before the COVID-19 outbreak while all students were at university (T1;

October, 2019). During the outbreak of COVID-19, we administered a second-wave investigation among students in first-wave while they were taking winter break (T2; February 7 to February 17, 2020). Three months after the COVID-19 outbreak (T3; May, 2020)when the pandemic has almost subsided in China and students have returned to university, we administered the third-wave investigation. A total of 2364 participants (1076 men and 1288 women; Mean age = 20.04 years, SD = 0.98) completed measures in all three waves. The data files and analysis syntax of the study can be found at https://osf.io/9gq7b/.

In all three waves, participants completed the Chinese version of the MINE scale (Khei, 2019 ) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS; Antony, Bieling, Cox, Enns, & Swinson, 1998) , along with other measures unrelated to the present research. To examine the potential mediating role of perceived benefits and costs about COVID-19, in the third wave, participants also completed the Perceived Benefits and Costs Scale (PBCS) of COVID-19 (Cheng, Wong, & Tsang, 2006) .

The 9-item MINE scale measures participants' general lay beliefs in the meaning and value of negative experiences (e.g., "I think that experiencing negative events in life is meaningful"), as well as the tendency of actively reflecting on the meaning or value of the negative experiences (e.g., "I actively focus on the meaning of the negative events that I encounter"). Participants indicated their agreement with each of the statements along a J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Journal Pre-proof 6-point scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 6 = Strongly agree).

Psychological distress. The 21-item DASS was used to measure psychological distress.

The scale comprised three subscales: Depression (e.g., "I felt that I had nothing to look forward to"), Anxiety (e.g., "I was aware of the action of my heart in the absence of physical exertion") and Stress (e.g., "I was intolerant of anything that kept me from getting on with what I was doing"). Participants indicated their agreement with each item during the past week on a 4-point scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 4 = Strongly agree).

Perceived Benefits and Costs. We adapted the PBCS from a previous study (Cheng et al., 2006) . The scale comprised a 20-item Benefit subscale and a 15-item Cost subscale.

Participants indicated their agreement on positive impacts (for the Benefit subscale, e.g., "Increased appreciation of life", "Increased appreciation of relationships with significant others") or negative impacts (for the Cost subscale, e.g., "Reduced self-confidence", "Reduced social activities") of the COVID-19. The rating scale ranged from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 7 (Strongly agree).

Given that our study was longitudinal in nature and that we concerned not only absolute level of MINE (or between-person differences) but also its change (or within-person differences), we employed latent change score model to test our hypotheses (McArdle, 2009 ).

The latent change score model can directly model between-person differences in within-person change. Moreover, this model allowed us to examine hypotheses based on latent rather than observed scores, which could avoid diverse limitations associated with observed score. In the model, we defined MINE t = MINE t-1 + △MINE t , where △MINE t J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f represented the MINE difference between time t amd time t-1.

Before reporting results of the latent change score modeling, however, we did some preliminary analyses based on observed score. Table 1 presented means, standard deviations, internal consistency, and correlations of all measures over time. We could see that participants report higher MINE during the outbreak of COVID-19. Paired t-test showed that MINE at T2 was higher than T1, t (2363) = 9.79, p < .001, d = 0.20, and T3, t (2363) = 2.99, p = .003, d = 0.06, while MINE at T3 was also higher than T1, t (2363) = 7.41, p < .001, d = 0.16. These findings provided preliminary evidence for Hypothesis 1.

We could also see that MINE at T1 was significantly correlated with depression, anxiety and stress at T2 and T3, suggesting that people with higher initial level of MINE could exhibit better psychological adjustment during and after the outbreak of COVID-19. These findings provided preliminary evidence for Hypothesis 2 and 3.

We could also see that MINE at T1 was significantly correlated with perceived benefits and costs at T3, suggesting people with higher initial MINE could see more benefits but less costs of COVID-19 at T3. Besides, perception of more positive and less negative impacts was associated with less depression, anxiety and stress at T3. These findings suggested the potential mediating role of perceived benefits and costs in accounting for the influences of 

We used the latent change score model to fit the MINE data from three time points. We also relied on this model to test our hypotheses.

The change of MINE. We first examined whether MINE increased from T1 to T2 and decreased from T2 to T3, as suggested by Hypothesis 1.

To do this, we tested two nested models. We first tested a constant change model, which hypothesized that the MINE change constantly over time. Thus, we set the means and variance of two differences score to be equal. Also, the two difference factors were allowed to be correlated with the initial level of MINE. The model fit was not satisfactory, χ² (3) We presented the results about the mediating effects of perceived benefits and costs in Table 2 and 3, respectively. Results showed that originally significant effect of trait-like MINE or increased MINE on distress (c) became nonsignificant (or less significant) after controlling for perceived benefits and costs (c'), and the indirect effect was significant as indicated by the 95% confidence interval. These findings indicated that both the effect of trait-like MINE and increased MINE on psychological distress were mediated by perceived benefits and costs. That is, participants who have higher initial MINE or manifested more increase in MINE in response to the COVID-19 outbreak perceived more benefits and less costs of the pandemic and consequently exhibited less distress three months later, providing evidence for Hypothesis 6.

Together, we got supportive evidence for all hypotheses. Note. a is the unstandardized coefficient for the association between initial MINE or increased MINE and perceived benefits. b is the unstandardized coefficient for the association between perceived benefits and distress outcomes. c is the unstandardized coefficient for the association between initial MINE or increased MINE and distress outcomes. c' is the unstandardized coefficient for the association between initial MINE or increased MINE and distress outcomes, controlling for perceived benefits. ** p < .01. *** p < .001. (Ai et al., 2005; Nikčević & Nicolaides, 2014; Park et al., 2008) . Moreover, we demonstrated one mechanism underlying the adaptive function of MINE by showing the mediation role of perceived benefits and costs of COVID-19. That is, greater MINE makes people more likely to derive positive rather than negative impacts from COVID-19, thereby reducing psychological distress. Practically, the present research suggested that in coping with threatening situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, an effective strategy is to reframe the negative situations in a more positive way.

People may feel confusing that our participants manifested the lowest psychological distress (including depression, anxiety, and stress) during the COVID-19 outbreak, which was inconsistent with previous findings on COVID-19 (e.g., Cao et al., 2020; Wang, Pan, et al., 2020) . The reason for this unusual finding may be that our sample was purely composed of college students. The outbreak of the COVID-19 in China happened during the Spring Festival, the most important holiday in China. While we were performing the second wave investigation, all participants were enjoying the family reunion time with the least school pressure, which might have made them experience the least distress.

Nevertheless, both initial MINE and increase in MINE in response to COVID-19 still manifest unique and prospective benefits on psychological adjustment, indicating that MINE does serve as a useful strategy for psychological adjustment.

Some limitations are notable. First, we have conducted our study in China. Dialectical thinking (i.e., negative situations also have positive implications) has been found to characterize Chinese culture (Ji, Su, & Nisbett, 2001; Peng & Nisbett, 1999) , suggesting that

Chinese are particularly likely to derive positive meanings from negative experiences (Khei, 2019) . Future research needs to examine whether our findings hold true in other cultural J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f contexts. Besides, we only considered negative emotions (i.e., depression, anxiety and stress) as the indexes of adjustment. Future research could examine more adjustment indexes such as well-being and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Finally, past research suggested some factors that may moderate the function of MINE such as the intensity and controllability of threat (Park, 2010) . We have not examined potential roles of these moderators, which also constitutes a limitation and deserves future study.

The current study showed that in response to a threatening situation such as COVID-19, people increase their tendency of seeing meaning in negative experiences, which exerts both contemporaneous and long-term benefits for psychological adjustment. Making meaning in negative experiences could serve as an adaptive coping strategy to the ongoing COVID-pandemic.

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