Edited by: Paul T. P. Wong, Trent University, Canada
Reviewed by: Harrison Oakes, University of Waterloo, Canada; Chiara Rollero, University of Turin, Italy
This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
†These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship
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The physical distancing measures necessitated by COVID-19 have resulted in a severe withdrawal from the patterns of daily life, necessitating significantly reduced contact with other people. To many, such withdrawal can be a major cause of distress. But, to some, this sort of withdrawal is an integral part of growth, a pathway to a more enriching life. The present study uses a sequential explanatory QUAN-qual design to investigate whether people who felt that their lives had changed for the better after being forced to engage in physical distancing, what factors predicted such well-being, and how they spent their time to generate this sense of well-being. We invited 614 participants who reported closely following physical distancing recommendations to complete a survey exploring this topic. Our analyses, after controlling for all other variables in the regression model, found a greater positive association between presence of meaning in life, coping style, and self-transcendent wisdom and residualized current well-being accounting for retrospective assessments of well-being prior to physical distancing. An extreme-case content analysis of participants' personal projects found that participants with low self-transcendent wisdom reported more survival-oriented projects (e.g., acquiring groceries or engaging in distracting entertainments), while participants reporting high self-transcendent wisdom reported more projects involving deepening interactions with other people, especially family. Our findings suggest a more nuanced pathway from adversity to a deeper sense of well-being by showing the importance of not merely coping with adversity, but truly transcending it.
The physical distancing measures necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a massive withdrawal from the habitual patterns of daily life and in significantly less contact with other people. To many, such withdrawal can lead to disconnection and loneliness, a major cause of stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, self-harm, and suicidal ideation (Goldsmith et al.,
Prior to the pandemic, North America was already beginning to demonstrate a worrying culture of disconnection, with people feeling increasingly isolated. The meteoric rise in single-person households over the past decade was accompanied by an increase in feelings of loneliness and disconnection (Snell,
While loneliness is well-known to have negative impacts on many aspects of mental and physical health, solitude, or at least some form of withdrawal from mundane activities, is a necessary part of achieving higher forms of development in many religious and spiritual traditions, from the Desert Fathers of Christianity to the Sannyasis of Hinduism. The Buddhist Dhammapadda, likewise, uses the image of the elephant walking alone through the jungle to symbolize the often-solitary path of the aspirant in search of enlightenment. Modern qualitative research with spiritual aspirants (Thomas,
The benefits of solitude for personal and spiritual growth, however, make two key assumptions: that solitude is both voluntary and used constructively. This is particularly clear in studies of aloneness in children: while self-determined solitude is consistently associated with positive developmental outcomes, non-self-determined solitude is associated with greater loneliness and its accompanying long-term problems (Galanaki,
As humans are inherently relational creatures, involuntary solitude may open up greater opportunities for individuals to experience an existential vacuum [see Frankl (
As a result of COVID-19, humanity is currently experiencing involuntary solitude on an unprecedented scale. However, as per the tenets of existential positive psychology (Wong,
According to the MORE Wisdom Model (Weststrate and Glück,
Thus, the isolation caused by the pandemic gives us cause for both concern and optimism. On the one hand, such isolation can and does impact most people negatively. On the other hand, strong relationships can help people weather such times of suffering, and such disruptions offer the opportunity to take stock of one's world and re-evaluate one's priorities. As per PP2.0 (Wong,
The present exploratory mixed-methods study began with these two questions: (1) How do North Americans feel they have been doing since the introduction of physical distancing measures, and (2) how are they spending their time? Using an explanatory QUAN-qual design, this paper describes and elucidates our finding that it is the relationships we build, and the things we care about, that lead to a life of flourishing, even in the face of global suffering.
This study was approved by the Research Ethics Board at the University of Toronto. Workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk chose to participate in our human intelligence task which was advertised as a study on coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers were directed to a link to participate in our online survey, hosted on Qualtrics. All participants gave informed consent before starting the survey. In part one, a screening was made in which participants indicated the extent of their engagement in physical distancing practices before completing a series of measurements in which they were instructed to respond while reflecting on their life prior to physical distancing. These included instruments on well-being, personal wisdom, presence and search for meaning, coping styles, negative emotion, and alienation.
Participants who reported closely following physical distancing recommendations were invited to complete a second stage of the survey, in which participants completed many of the same measures for a second time, this time reflecting on their life and experiences as they were at the time of completion (see
List of measures completed in each section of the survey.
Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) | X | |
12-item Abbreviated Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (Brief3DWS) | X | |
Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) | X | X |
PERMA-profiler | X | X |
Personal Projects Analysis Workbook | X | X |
Adult Self-Transcendence Inventory (ASTI) | X | |
Brief COPE Inventory | X |
Data was collected from mid-April to end-of-July, 2020, through a two-part online survey distributed
The final sample of physically-distanced participants consists of 274 Americans and 340 Canadians (
Demographics (
Canada | 339 | 55.21 |
United States of America | 275 | 44.79 |
Male | 334 | 54.40 |
Female | 279 | 45.44 |
18–64 | 592 | 96.42 |
65 and over | 22 | 3.58 |
Christian | 248 | 40.39 |
Buddhist | 14 | 2.28 |
Muslim | 29 | 4.72 |
Hindu | 18 | 2.93 |
Atheist | 124 | 20.20 |
Agnostic | 137 | 22.31 |
Other | 42 | 6.84 |
Never married | 264 | 43.00 |
Married/living with a partner | 304 | 49.51 |
Divorced/separated | 40 | 6.51 |
Widowed | 6 | 0.98 |
None | 374 | 60.91 |
One child | 89 | 14.50 |
Two children | 94 | 15.31 |
More than two children | 57 | 9.28 |
High school diploma and below | 181 | 29.48 |
Bachelor's degree or equivalent | 322 | 52.44 |
Graduate degree or equivalent | 111 | 18.08 |
Under C$20,000 | 47 | 7.65 |
Between C$20,000 and C$40,000 | 110 | 17.92 |
Between C$40,000 and C$60,000 | 118 | 19.22 |
Between C$60,000 and C$80,000 | 99 | 16.12 |
Between C$80,000 and C$100,000 | 90 | 14.66 |
Between C$100,000 and C$150,000 | 91 | 14.82 |
Over C$150,000 | 59 | 9.61 |
Participants were asked how much they were participating in physical distancing measures by staying home, avoiding visiting others or having others visit them at home, avoiding religious gatherings and other social events, limiting trips to the grocery stores, or outdoor activities, and maintaining a safe distance from people who have traveled, in stores, or showing COVID-related symptoms; also whether they were canceling travel plans, quarantining after travel, self-isolating due to symptoms or close contact with people who had then, and generally following public health guidance about COVID as much as possible. Participants rated the extent to which they did so on a scale from 0 (Not at all) to 10 (To my best ability). Participants who scored an average of eight or above on all items were permitted to fill out additional questionnaires, as we were only interested in those who were physically distancing most of the time. Only participants who scored an average of eight or above on our measure of physical distancing are included in the present study.
Participants were asked to rate on a scale from 0 (Not at all religious/spiritual) to 10 (Very religious/spiritual) how religious or spiritual they were, in order to measure both the degree of religiosity and the degree of spirituality separately.
The Brief COPE Inventory (Carver,
The 12-item Abbreviated Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS-12; Thomas et al.,
To measure participants' perceptions of social support, we used the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS; Zimet et al.,
The PERMA-profiler (Butler and Kern,
The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ; Steger et al.,
The Adult Self-Transcendence Inventory (ASTI; Levenson et al.,
Finally, the Personal Projects Analysis Workbook (PPAW; Little,
To reduce the number of variables in later regression analyses, we conducted a latent profile analysis (LPA) on the 14 coping subscales from the Brief COPE (self-distraction, active coping, denial, substance use, emotional support, instrumental support, behavioral disengagement, venting, positive reframing, planning, humor, acceptance, religion, and self-blame) to identify latent subgroups of individuals who engaged in physical distancing, using the tidy LPA package in R (Berlin et al.,
Four different models containing from 1 to 7 profiles were evaluated using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) fit indices (Schwarz,
Multiple linear regression models were used to explore the relationship between coping styles, personal wisdom, social support, self-transcendent wisdom, religiosity, spirituality, health, meaning in life, negative emotions, loneliness, alienation, and well-being. In particular, we are interested in investigating how these variables affected: (1) participants' retrospective pre-physical distancing well-being, and (2) the variance in reported current well-being (at the time of data collection) not explained by its pre-distancing level.
Descriptive statistics of the outcome and predictor variables are presented in
Descriptive statistics of study variables (
Self-distraction | 3.50 | 1.63 | 0-6 |
Active coping | 3.52 | 1.57 | 0-6 |
Denial | 0.62 | 1.26 | 0-6 |
Substance use | 0.92 | 1.56 | 0-6 |
Emotional support | 2.91 | 1.73 | 0-6 |
Instrumental support | 2.36 | 1.66 | 0-6 |
Behavioral disengagement | 1.01 | 1.45 | 0-6 |
Venting | 1.87 | 1.42 | 0-6 |
Positive reframing | 3.15 | 1.75 | 0-6 |
Planning | 3.51 | 1.73 | 0-6 |
Humor | 2.10 | 1.86 | 0-6 |
Acceptance | 4.42 | 1.41 | 0-6 |
Religion | 1.81 | 2.15 | 0-6 |
Self-blame | 1.17 | 1.51 | 0-6 |
Religious coping | 0.23 | 0.42 | 0-1 |
Substance Use | 0.07 | 0.26 | 0-1 |
Average | 0.61 | 0.49 | 0-1 |
Disengagement | 0.08 | 0.28 | 0-1 |
Religiosity | 3.40 | 3.65 | 0-10 |
Spirituality | 4.56 | 3.63 | 0-10 |
Self-transcendence (ASTI) | 2.63 | 0.54 | 1-4 |
Alienation |
2.32 | 0.59 | 1-4 |
Wisdom (Brief3DWS) | 3.54 | 0.66 | 1-5 |
Social support (MSPSS) | 5.42 | 1.23 | 1-7 |
Health (pre-physical distancing) | 6.78 | 2.24 | 0-10 |
Health (current) |
6.61 | 2.30 | 0-10 |
Well-being (pre-physical distancing) | 6.89 | 1.94 | 0.13-10 |
Well-being (current) |
6.47 | 2.06 | 0.13-10 |
Presence of meaning in life (pre-physical distancing) | 4.57 | 1.64 | 1-7 |
Presence of meaning in life (current) |
4.23 | 1.54 | 1-7 |
Search of meaning in life (pre-physical distancing) | 4.22 | 1.60 | 1-7 |
Search of meaning in life (current) |
4.20 | 1.63 | 1-7 |
Negative emotions (pre-physical distancing) | 3.90 | 2.31 | 0-10 |
Negative emotion (current) |
4.21 | 2.48 | 0-10 |
Loneliness (pre-physical distancing) | 4.20 | 3.22 | 0-10 |
Loneliness (current) |
4.66 | 3.25 | 0-10 |
Predicting current levels of performance with retrospective pre-physical distancing levels.
Well-being | 0.84 |
0.03 | 0.62 | |
Health | 0.87 |
0.02 | 0.71 | |
Negative emotion | 0.76 |
0.03 | 0.50 | |
Loneliness | 0.56 |
0.03 | 0.31 | |
Presence of meaning in life | 0.69 |
0.03 | 0.54 | |
Search for meaning in life | 0.74 |
0.03 | 0.53 |
Nested robust multiple linear regressions were conducted in Stata/IC 16. Coping profiles obtained from the LPA were transformed into dummy variables, using the profile of participants who mainly used adaptive coping strategies as the reference group. Examinations of the correlation table (see
To elaborate on possible reasons for any changes in experience, we used personal projects analysis (Little,
After comparing fit indices and entropy levels across all four models (see
Fit statistics for LPA (Model 3: equal variances and equal covariances).
1 | 22332.82 | 22858.80 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | |
2 | 21972.82 | 22565.10 | 0.97 | 0.98 | 1.00 | 0.15 | 0.85 | 0.01 |
3 | 21687.36 | 22345.94 | 0.94 | 0.95 | 0.98 | 0.10 | 0.65 | 0.01 |
4 | ||||||||
5 | 21657.69 | 22448.87 | 0.79 | 0.78 | 0.97 | 0.10 | 0.34 | 0.94 |
6 | 21389.82 | 22247.30 | 0.81 | 0.77 | 1.00 | 0.06 | 0.31 | 0.01 |
7 | 21387.94 | 22311.72 | 0.84 | 0.80 | 0.98 | 0.07 | 0.24 | 0.15 |
The four latent profiles of coping mechanisms among individuals who are physically distancing. Profile 1: religious coping (
Mean differences between profiles by coping mechanisms.
Self-distraction | 3.49 | 1.59 | −0.014 | 4.09 | 1.55 | 0.364 |
3.38 | 1.67 | −0.074 | 3.90 | 1.36 | 0.246 |
Active coping | 4.20 | 1.32 | 0.433 |
3.11 | 1.49 | −0.264 |
3.29 | 1.61 | −0.151 |
3.71 | 1.43 | 0.117 |
Denial | 0.33 | 0.69 | −0.222 |
0.52 | 0.89 | −0.082 | 0.28 | 0.67 | −0.270 |
3.98 | 1.22 | 2.667 |
Substance Use | 0.41 | 0.87 | −0.323 |
4.72 | 0.96 | 2.416 |
0.38 | 0.78 | −0.346 |
2.86 | 1.51 | 1.238 |
Emotional support | 3.33 | 1.72 | 0.264 |
2.98 | 1.90 | 0.039 | 2.62 | 1.70 | −0.170 |
3.75 | 1.29 | 0.462 |
Instrumental support | 2.84 | 1.68 | 0.292 |
2.24 | 1.57 | −0.087 | 2.10 | 1.62 | −0.163 |
3.10 | 1.55 | 0.446 |
Behavioral disengagement | 0.90 | 1.43 | −0.072 | 1.24 | 1.58 | 0.146 | 0.73 | 1.17 | −0.191 |
3.16 | 1.53 | 1.460 |
Venting | 1.73 | 1.42 | −0.086 | 2.07 | 1.32 | 0.135 | 1.72 | 1.32 | −0.109 | 3.20 | 1.47 | 0.911 |
Positive Reframing | 3.88 | 1.72 | 0.415 |
2.76 | 1.93 | −0.208 | 2.85 | 1.68 | −0.170 |
3.61 | 1.48 | 0.260 |
Planning | 4.04 | 1.61 | 0.300 |
3.65 | 1.69 | 0.072 | 3.22 | 1.76 | −0.163 |
4.02 | 1.35 | 0.277 |
Humor | 1.65 | 1.79 | −0.221 |
2.52 | 2.11 | 0.241 | 2.02 | 1.78 | −0.052 | 3.59 | 1.54 | 0.781 |
Acceptance | 4.62 | 1.42 | 0.152 | 4.50 | 1.28 | 0.063 | 4.40 | 1.37 | −0.017 | 3.92 | 1.64 | −0.362 |
Religion | 4.88 | 1.09 | 1.422 |
0.83 | 1.51 | −0.451 |
0.54 | 0.88 | −0.588 |
3.31 | 1.73 | 0.691 |
Self-blame | 0.82 | 1.30 | −0.215 |
1.63 | 1.58 | 0.286 |
1.03 | 1.40 | −0.101 |
2.82 | 1.73 | 1.081 |
Profile 1: Religious (23.5%) consisted of individuals who engaged in greater religious coping, z = 1.42, greater adaptive coping strategies (e.g., active coping, z = 0.43), and less maladaptive strategies (e.g., substance use, z = −0.32).
Profile 2: Substance Use (7.49%) consisted of individuals who engaged in greater maladaptive strategies (e.g., substance use, z = 2.42 and self-blame, z = 0.29) and less adaptive coping strategies (e.g., active coping, z = −0.26) and religious coping, z = −0.45.
Profile 3: Average (60.75%) consisted of participants who engaged in both adaptive and maladaptive strategies; they also engaged in very low levels of religious coping (z = −0.59).
Profile 4: Disengagement (8.31%) engaged in more behavioral disengagement, z = 1.46, substance use, z = 1.23, denial, z = 2.67, self-blame, z = 1.08, some adaptive strategies at higher levels (e.g., instrumental support, z = 0.45), and religious coping at higher levels, z = 0.69, but with less acceptance (z = −0.36).
These results suggest individuals engaged in both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies. However, they also show that a small group of individuals were coping relatively well with the pandemic (23.5%). These profile memberships were used for subsequent analysis as the entropy level was high (0.95).
Nested robust multiple linear regressions were used to predict both retrospectively reported pre-physical distancing well-being and current well-being not accounted for by pre-physical distancing levels. Regression models are presented in
Predictive models of participants' reported levels of well-being (variables were mean-centered).
Nation (Canada vs. USA) | 0.13 | −0.23 |
−0.21 |
−0.24 |
−0.08 | −0.11 | −0.14 |
(0.16) | (0.08) | (0.08) | (0.08) | (0.11) | (0.07) | (0.07) | |
Gender | −0.12 | −0.26 |
−0.23 |
−0.25 |
0.10 | −0.00 | −0.03 |
(0.15) | (0.08) | (0.08) | (0.08) | (0.11) | (0.07) | (0.08) | |
Household income (2019) | 0.24 |
0.04 | 0.03 | 0.03 | −0.04 | −0.02 | −0.01 |
(0.04) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.03) | (0.02) | (0.02) | |
Religious affiliation | −0.18 |
0.00 | 0.01 | 0.01 | −0.03 | 0.03 | 0.02 |
(0.03) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | |
Highest education | 0.12 | −0.13 |
−0.11 | −0.11 | 0.11 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
(0.11) | (0.06) | (0.06) | (0.06) | (0.08) | (0.05) | (0.05) | |
Marital status | 0.44 |
0.04 | 0.05 | 0.05 | 0.21 |
0.06 | 0.05 |
(0.14) | (0.06) | (0.06) | (0.06) | (0.09) | (0.05) | (0.05) | |
Substance use | −0.02 | 0.02 | 0.03 | 0.10 | 0.12 | ||
(0.18) | (0.17) | (0.18) | (0.16) | (0.17) | |||
Average | −0.01 | 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.12 | 0.04 | ||
(0.12) | (0.12) | (0.13) | (0.11) | (0.11) | |||
Disengagement | 0.63 |
0.51 |
0.19 | 0.38 |
0.03 | ||
(0.19) | (0.16) | (0.21) | (0.17) | (0.26) | |||
Self–transcendence (ASTI) | 0.53 |
0.46 |
0.49 |
0.30 |
|||
(0.10) | (0.16) | (0.09) | (0.14) | ||||
Substance Use*ASTI | 0.22 | 0.48 | |||||
(0.27) | (0.24) | ||||||
Average*ASTI | 0.01 | 0.15 | |||||
(0.19) | (0.16) | ||||||
Disengagement*ASTI | 1.03 |
1.19 |
|||||
(0.39) | (0.48) | ||||||
Wisdom (Brief3DWS) | 0.19 |
0.22 |
0.21 |
0.07 | 0.06 | ||
(0.08) | (0.07) | (0.07) | (0.07) | (0.07) | |||
Social support (MSPSS) | 0.40 |
0.42 |
0.41 |
0.18 |
0.18 |
||
(0.05) | (0.04) | (0.04) | (0.04) | (0.04) | |||
Religiosity | 0.02 | 0.02 | 0.02 | 0.04 |
0.03 | ||
(0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | |||
Spirituality | −0.01 | −0.02 | −0.02 | −0.01 | −0.00 | ||
(0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | |||
Presence of meaning in life (pre-physical distancing) | 0.48 |
0.44 |
0.45 |
0.08 |
0.09 |
||
(0.04) | (0.04) | (0.04) | (0.03) | (0.03) | |||
Presence of meaning in life (current resid) | 0.06 | 0.05 | 0.31 |
0.30 |
|||
(0.04) | (0.05) | (0.05) | (0.04) | ||||
Search of meaning in life (pre-physical distancing) | 0.05 |
0.03 | 0.03 | −0.00 | −0.00 | ||
(0.03) | (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.02) | (0.02) | |||
Search of meaning in life (current resid) | 0.02 | 0.03 | −0.02 | −0.01 | |||
(0.04) | (0.04) | (0.04) | (0.04) | ||||
Health (pre-physical distancing) | 0.24 |
0.22 |
0.21 |
0.04 | 0.04 | ||
(0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | |||
Health (current resid) | 0.04 | 0.04 | 0.31 |
0.29 |
|||
(0.04) | (0.04) | (0.04) | (0.04) | ||||
Negative emotions (pre-physical distancing) | −0.08 |
−0.07 |
−0.07 |
0.00 | 0.00 | ||
(0.03) | (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.02) | (0.02) | |||
Negative emotion (current resid) | −0.01 | −0.01 | −0.11 |
−0.11 |
|||
(0.03) | (0.03) | (0.03) | (0.03) | ||||
Loneliness (pre-physical distancing) | −0.05 |
−0.05 |
−0.06 |
−0.01 | −0.01 | ||
(0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.01) | (0.01) | |||
Loneliness (current resid) | −0.03 | −0.03 | −0.04 |
−0.04 |
|||
(0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | (0.02) | ||||
Alienation | 0.01 | −0.02 | −0.38 |
−0.41 |
|||
(0.09) | (0.09) | (0.10) | (0.10) | ||||
Well-being (pre-physical distancing) | −0.28 |
−0.30 |
|||||
(0.04) | (0.04) | ||||||
Well-being (current resid) | −0.33 |
−0.34 |
|||||
(0.05) | (0.05) | ||||||
Intercept | −1.27 |
0.69 |
0.53 | 0.65 |
−0.35 | −0.09 | 0.07 |
(0.45) | (0.30) | (0.29) | (0.29) | (0.37) | (0.26) | (0.26) | |
0.15 | 0.78 | 0.81 | 0.81 | 0.02 | 0.61 | 0.62 | |
604 | 604 | 604 | 604 | 604 | 604 | 604 |
Models 1 and 5 were baseline models examining the main effects of nation, gender, household income in 2019, religious affiliation, educational level, and marital status on participants' pre-physical distancing well-being as well as the amount of variance in current well-being not explained by its pre-physical distancing level. Both models were significant,
Models 2 and 3 aimed to predict pre-physical distancing well-being using slightly different approaches. In Model 2, we predicted pre-physical distancing well-being using pre-physical distancing levels of negative emotion, loneliness, health, presence of and search for meaning in life, as well as constructs hypothesized to be largely stable over time (i.e., coping profiles, wisdom, social support, religiosity, and spirituality). However, since our pre-physical distancing well-being was a retrospective measure that might be significantly affected by current levels of performance, Model 3 examined the effects of current levels of negative emotion, loneliness, health, presence of and search for meaning in life, represented by unstandardized residuals, as well as difference measures of self-transcendence and alienation measured by ASTI.
As shown in
Before entering the interaction terms between coping profiles and ASTI, controlling for all other variables in the models, belonging to coping Profile 4 “Disengagement” was associated with higher pre-physical distancing well-being. Model 4 explored the interaction terms,
The effects of self-transcendent wisdom on self-reported levels of well-being for people belonging to different coping profiles (variables were mean-centered). For illustrative purposes,
F-tests for significant non-zero slopes and significant differences between the slopes of pre-physical distancing well-being on ASTI by each coping profile.
Religious coping | ||
Substance use | ||
Average | ||
Disengagement | ||
Religious coping vs. Substance use | ||
Religious coping vs. Disengagement | ||
Religious coping vs. Average | ||
Substance Use vs. Disengagement | ||
Substance Use vs. Average | ||
Disengagement vs. Average |
Model 6 aimed to improve on the baseline Model 5 (discussed above) by adding pre-physical distancing and residualized current levels of negative emotion, loneliness, presence of and search for meaning in life, and health, as well as coping profiles, wisdom, social support, religiosity, spirituality, self-transcendent wisdom, alienation, and pre-physical distancing well-being, in the prediction of residualized current well-being. Model 6 explained 61.47% of the variance in the unstandardized residuals of current well-being,
Predicting variance in current well-being not accounted for by pre-physical distancing levels, after controlling for other variables, we observed significant positive main effects of social support, pre-physical distancing and residualized current presence of meaning in life, residualized current health, and ASTI, as well as significant negative main effects from residualized current negative emotion and loneliness, alienation, and retrospective pre-physical distancing well-being. The effects of the interaction terms are illustrated in
Since self-transcendent wisdom plays such an important role in maintaining and improving well-being, we decided to further examine the individuals with particularly high and low self-reported transcendence. Using logistic regressions, we explored the effects of demographic characteristics (i.e., country, age, gender, annual household income in 2019, religious affiliation, marital status, and highest level of education) on whether one fell into the top and bottom 10% based on their scores on ASTI (
As shown in
Predicting memberships in the high and low ASTI groups by demographics.
1.01 | ||||
(0.46) | ||||
0.98 | ||||
(0.02) | ||||
0.49 | ||||
(0.20) | ||||
1.00 | ||||
(0.11) | ||||
Atheist | 0.09 |
0.10 |
||
(0.05) | (0.05) | |||
Agnostic | 0.11 |
0.12 |
||
(0.06) | (0.06) | |||
Other | 0.48 | 0.44 | ||
(0.28) | (0.23) | |||
High school and below | 0.48 | 0.45 |
||
(0.21) | (0.17) | |||
Graduate degree and equivalent | 1.08 | 0.12 | ||
(0.63) | (0.55) | |||
Never married | 0.51 | 0.47 |
||
(0.23) | (0.16) | |||
Divorced/separated/widowed | 3.88 | 1.25 | ||
(3.25) | (0.84) | |||
6.40 |
2.94 |
1.29 | 1.40 | |
(3.41) | (0.85) | (0.29) | (0.33) | |
46.82 |
34.01 |
5.47 | 5.73 | |
0.22 | 0.16 | 0.03 | 0.03 | |
151 | 151 | 151 | 151 |
Each personal project reported was categorized as one of nine possible types: Academic, Work, Health, Recreational, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Maintenance, Creative, and Other. All categories come from the established work on personal projects analysis (Little and Gee,
Examples of pre and current project for the low self-transcendence group.
Academic | Study Math; Finish dissertation; Study for a higher certification; Complete introductory course for degree. | Study; Finish dissertation; Online courses; Going back to school; School; Working on my graduate research. |
Work | Trying to get better at my job by doing lots of unpaid overtime; Find a better career; Go to work; Running a side business. | Working online; I work from home; Doing online gigs like MTurk; Making money on the side to make up for lost business income. |
Health | Exercise regularly; Lose weight; Working out; Eating clean; Following up on doctor visits. | Keeping hands clean; Lose weight; Fitness goals; Yoga; Exercise at home; Lifting weights/getting bigger. |
Recreational | Play games; going to movies; Finish reading a book I had started; Watch TV; Watch movies. | Play Sims; Building an island in Animal Crossing; Playing video games; Reading more; Watching Netflix. |
Maintenance | Cleaning the house; Grocery shopping; Yard work; Cooking dinner; Mowing the lawn. | Home repairs; Give my dog a bath; Get a haircut; Obtain stock of cleaning products; Keeping the house clean; Cleaning out the garage. |
Interpersonal | Finding romance; Write brother; Taking care of parents; Making online friends; Hanging out with friends; Visiting family; Dating. | Video chatting with friends and family; Playing games with friends; Homeschooling kids to prepare for the next grade; Raise child |
Intrapersonal | Strengthening my spirituality; Continuing my mental health therapy. | Try to be a nicer person; Get better control of my anger; Keeping my spirit up; Trying to appreciate the time off work. |
Creative | Learning guitar; Painting; Personal animation projects; Woodworking; Work on my classical singing. | Baking; Redecorating my room; Baking bread; Cocktail making; Diamond painting; Work on editing my novel. |
Examples of pre and current project for the high self-transcendence group.
Academic | Finish my degree; Pursuing my Masters education; Pursuing my PhD; Upgrading my math for future college courses. | Studying for school; Online professional course; Pursuing my Masters; Take online courses; Studying for a professional exam. |
Work | Setting up an online business; Working a new business idea; Work. Complete work documentation; Increase income streams. | Going to work; I have been getting extra shifts; Online work; Earning money working online; Research about work; New business. |
Health | Dental check-up appointment; Going to the gym daily to improve my health; Fitness; Hiking. | I am eating healthier; Increase stamina; Starting a new workout plan; Keeping myself busy and active (Running through the stairs, using treadmill). |
Recreational | Reading; Watching TV and movies; Reading new books; Read more books; Movie and opera visit; Catch up on TV shows. | Read more; I am watching a TV series with my wife every night; Reading books; Read some classic books; Games; Catch up on favorite TV shows. |
Maintenance | Cleaning out the shed; Work on car; Clean the house; Cooking; Buying groceries. | Working on house repair; Work on my car; Yard work; Cleaning up garage; Paint the inside of my house. |
Interpersonal | Helping my daughters with basketball; Teach my son how to swim; Walking with friends daily; Go visit my dad; Taking my son to the park for socialization; Enjoying online game with friends. | I have had deep conversations with my family; Rekindling familial relationships; Generally getting to know people better from a virtual distance; Making deeper connections with people. |
Intrapersonal | Taking better care of myself; Connecting more to my faith; Read a self-help book; Stay in touch with my spiritual side. | Trying to be as happy as possible; Thinking what it is to be satisfied and content in life; Meditating every day to relieve stress; Improving self-care. |
Creative | Take photos; Rock painting; Knitting a scarf; Paint a picture; Practicing my piano; Write a book; Do some craft projects. | Make art; Practice playing the piano; Scrapbooking; Drawing; Writing my own novel; Card making; Canvas painting; Learning a new language. |
Both the high and low self-transcendent wisdom group participants placed greater emphasis on recreational projects at the time of data collection than they did reflecting on their projects prior to physical distancing, as seen in
Participants with high self-transcendent wisdom placed greater emphasis on projects involving deepening interactions with other people, especially family. Prior projects involving family are maintained, or participants mention transitioning toward making their current projects more focused on spending time with their family, friends, or significant others. Participants with low self-transcendent wisdom had difficulty maintaining their interpersonal projects across pre-physical distancing and current lists: For example, dating and spending time with friends dropped off their current list. We can particularly see this with projects involving electronic media. For participants with high self-transcendent wisdom, projects involving watching television or playing videos games emphasize sharing an experience, and are therefore coded as “Interpersonal” projects. Those with higher levels of self-transcendent wisdom appeared to prioritize deepening the connections they have, while those with lower reported levels of self-transcendent wisdom appear to retreat from others, engaging with projects that are accomplished alone, or are immediately salient.
Intrapersonal projects cover activities that attempt to change or develop oneself (e.g., active self-care, personal growth, and spirituality). While participants with high self-transcendent wisdom reported more intrapersonal projects prior to physical distancing than participants with low self-transcendent wisdom, we see a spike in these projects among latter group during physical distancing that focus on managing negative emotions, particularly anger. Given the association between self-transcendent wisdom and feelings of interconnectedness and personal growth, it makes sense that the projects of those with higher levels of self-transcendent involve identifying ways to feel more content, happy and well, through e.g., meditation and self-care, during a global pandemic that generates an unprecedent level of anxiety and stress about the future. The projects of those low in self-transcendent wisdom, on the other hand, again, emphasize something immediate and visceral; in this case, anger management.
Across both groups of participants, a qualitatively noticeable difference was noted for participants with low, as compared to high, self-transcendent wisdom, toward very basic forms of survival projects during physical distancing. Projects such as
We created the category of “Creative” projects as distinct from “Academic,” “Work,” and “Recreational” projects in order to capture artistic projects, musical projects, or in some cases, learning languages, that lacked an emphasis on formal schooling, earning money, or hedonic fun. Creative projects instead emphasized making things or mastering skills. Prior to physical distancing, participants in both groups reported similar projects. The most common of these projects were what one would traditionally categorize as creative pursuits, such as painting, writing, or playing an instrument. During physical distancing, however, projects began to diverge. For low transcendence participants, even creative projects retain some element of a utilitarian goal: preparing food with a new recipe, for instance, or redecorating personal spaces. Creative projects among high-transcendence participants, on the other hand, tended to emphasize creation for creation's sake, with more emphasis on languages, fine arts, crafts, or even puzzles. Once again, participants with lower self-transcendent wisdom focused on concrete, tangible projects that often have a clear goal or result, while participants with higher self-transcendent wisdom focused on projects that appear more open-ended, abstract, and typically involve others.
Overall, by examining the participants with the lowest and highest self-transcendent wisdom we see a pattern of change in pre-pandemic to current personal project lists. Examples of personal project responses that display a pattern of transformation are displayed in
Exemplar participants pre-current personal project lists.
Trying to earn enough on mTurk to keep our family afloat; Trying to help my husband get into an alternate teaching certification program; Trying to keep my blood sugar at a reasonable level; Trying to lose weight; Trying to save enough money to bring our dog to the vet. | Starting our self-sufficient farm (growing our own vegetables, washing clothes by hand composting, etc.); working more on mTurk to be able to build our chicken coop; Fixing things in our home that have needed to be fixed for a long time; Using social media to encourage political and social change (urging Congress to pass UBI, Medicare4All, police restructuring, etc.); Writing government officials to express my opinions and urge change. |
Learning guitar; Learning to drive; Visiting friends; Saving money; Learning music theory. | Learning guitar; Learning music theory; Watching movies with friends online; Playing online games with friends; Getting in better shape. |
I was concentrating on my health; I was trying to be financially stable; I was invested in advancing my career; Being content with life; Having a happy married life. | Personal health; Thinking about all those loved ones and friends and family; Making deeper connections with people; Thinking about career change; Thinking of what it is to be satisfied and content in life; Having a fun and happy married life. |
The analyses described above focused on determining predictors of two main variables: (1) retrospective perceptions of well-being before the beginning of physical distancing, and (2) the residuals between participants' retrospective well-being and participants' perceived well-being since the enactment of physical distancing measures, which we used to provide an estimate of change in perceived well-being since physical distancing began. Before we move to a general discussion, it is worth noting our overall approach to the interpretation of these data. Due to the retrospective nature of the data collection, we interpret these data used as representing idiographic participant self-understanding of change over time, as it seems to them at the time of data collection, rather than “objective” differences between present and past states of being. While psychology has historically emphasized nomothetic analyses of experience (Munsterberg,
In terms of quantitative findings, controlling for all other variables in the model, we observed a greater association between nationality, gender, personal wisdom, disengagement coping profile, retrospective health, loneliness, negative emotions, and meaning in life and participants' retrospective well-being than for other factors. Residualized current perceived health, negative emotions, loneliness, and alienation demonstrated the greatest association with residualized current well-being, again controlling for all other variables. The interaction between Disengaged coping and self-transcendent wisdom, as well as self-transcendent wisdom on its own, was strongly associated with both retrospective and residual well-being, as was retrospective meaning in life and social support. Controlling for all other variables, residualized current well-being is negatively associated retrospective pre-physical distanced well-being.
Many of these results are in line with past findings, both during and prior to the pandemic. For instance, personal wisdom (Grossmann et al.,
In line with previous findings that strong interpersonal relationships predict more positive experiences of solitude (Pauly et al.,
That participants with the highest self-transcendent wisdom were more likely to be religious is an interesting finding, and one for which the framework of existential positive psychology provides some context. While it might be too strong a claim that religion itself is necessary, Wong's (
Self-transcendence is defined as decreased egoic self-salience and increased feelings of connectedness to something larger than oneself (Kitson et al.,
That self-transcendent wisdom seemed to have a stronger contribution to variance in well-being over coping for Profiles 2 (Substance Use) and 4 (Disengagement) than for Profiles 1 (Religious) and 3 (Average) is somewhat surprising. Perhaps wiser people have a deeper understanding of negative emotions as not necessarily bad or maladaptive; used appropriately, they can help signal the need to engage adaptive strategies for psychological safety or strategies that can generate psychological growth (Webster,
A decreased acceptance of ongoing negative events might also have played a role. Previous research in mindfulness has found that the “non-judgmental acceptance” component of mindfulness is negatively associated with both intuition (Remmers et al.,
However, for participants who already had adaptive coping mechanisms, their existing strategies probably accounted for most of the added benefit of self-transcendent wisdom, although self-transcendent wisdom still played a role in predicting their well-being. Coping strategies appear to be important for well-being in daily life (Ben-Zur,
Interestingly, self-transcendence was not a significant predictor of well-being in a previous study of protective factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pellerin and Raufaste (
In the philosophical literature on self-transformation, a distinction is made between self-transformation and self-cultivation (Callard,
Although the pandemic has severely affected every area of public life, it has also deepened some individuals' connections to others and complexified their worldview, which could potentially allow post-traumatic growth (PTG), defined as positive psychological change following trauma that results in a greater appreciation for life, increased personal strength, spiritual growth, more meaningful relationships, and the recognition of new possibilities (Tedeschi and Calhoun,
Among the participants high in self-transcendent wisdom, we see evidence of such a shift in priorities. Projects oriented around family or immediate communities of friends become more prevalent during physical distancing than they were before. Intrapersonal projects, aimed at some sort of personal change, also become more focal: meditation, yoga, and contemplation on a good life become projects among participants with high self-transcendent wisdom. Memorably, one person showed a newfound commitment to political activism, possibly spurred by the surge in racial justice protests that began during the time of data collection. These projects closely match the pattern of activities that Calhoun et al. (
To use an analogy, the relationship between adaptive coping and self-transcendent wisdom may be compared to boiling water. As one heats a pot of water, at some point, when the liquid water has no more capacity to disperse energy, it turns to steam. People with existing adaptive coping strategies are analogous to a larger pot of water, which takes more heat and longer exposure to boil. Those without such strategies, however, are analogous to smaller pots; the heat represented by the current disruption to daily life is enough to require them not just to cope, but to change.
Like all studies, our study has limitations. The most salient of these is that it captures a single moment in time, representing the experience of North Americans in the early summer of 2020. It is possible that some of our findings might differ were the same questions to be asked of a different sample, or even of the same sample now, in the second winter wave of the pandemic. Another limitation of the present study is that our “baseline” measures from before the pandemic are retrospective, not pre-recorded. While this might open our study up to recency and saliency biases, we feel that this concern is balanced out by the strengths of this retrospective method: a high self-rating of well-being now may be far more meaningful than such a rating a year ago. Importantly, our interest in the present study was predominately idiographic, rather than nomothetic. Our findings should be interpreted as presenting participants' self-understanding of their life and experiences of change during a period of physical distancing and how that has changed, rather than as impersonal objective measures at two points in time. While some researchers were fortunate enough to have baseline measures for their participants that pre-dated the pandemic [see Hamza et al. (
The present study used a broad range of measures to explore contributing factors to participants' well-being during physical distancing resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we used retrospective comparison to examine perceived changes in well-being prior to the pandemic, and how they contributed to a change in well-being at the time of the study. We found that self-transcendent wisdom and perceived meaning in life demonstrated the strongest positive associations with change in perceived well-being when controlling for all other variables. Analysis of the personal projects of participants reporting the highest levels of self-transcendent wisdom revealed a pattern consistent with models of PTG and aspirational self-transformation. Our findings suggest that while most participants experienced a decline in well-being, for understandable reasons (e.g., loneliness, negative emotions, and alienation), higher levels of self-transcendent wisdom were associated with positive changes in well-being during physical distancing as compared to before—especially for participants with merely average coping mechanisms, or who belonged to the Substance Use coping profile. Our findings suggest ways to avoid having the COVID-19 pandemic become the traumatic event of a generation, but instead a genuine watershed moment for growth.
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by University of Toronto Research Ethics Board. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
JK, MM, ZF, and SM designed the study and contributed to writing the manuscript. JK provided theoretical framing and performed qualitative analysis. MM, MA, and RA performed latent profile analysis and data visualization. ZF performed descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis, and data visualization. SM provided the original concept for the study, performed qualitative analysis, and data visualization. MF provided funding, resources, supervision for the study, and reviewed the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at:
1There are 23 responses that came from 11 IP addresses. After examining these responses closely we decided to keep them because it is more likely that responses from the same IP originated from the same household.