The explanatory ability of COVID-19 life changes on quality of life: A comparison of those who have had and not had COVID-19

Bryant M Stone

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03504-1

The explanatory ability of COVID-19 life changes on quality of life: A comparison of those who have had and not had COVID-19

Curr Psychol. 2022 Aug 4:1-12. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-03504-1. Online ahead of print.

Author

Bryant M Stone¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University, 1125 Lincoln Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901 USA.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly negatively affected individuals' quality of life through multiple means such as social isolation, exacerbated mental health conditions, and financial instability. Multiple studies have demonstrated that one of the negative correlates of quality of life is the perceived danger of COVID-19 (i.e., fear of and anxiety about COVID-19). The current study addresses limitations in the literature by testing how life changes from COVID-19 explain the direct effect of the perceived danger of COVID-19 on quality of life using a United States sample between those who have had COVID-19 compared to those who have not had COVID-19. Undergraduate students (n = 196) from a Midwestern University in the United States participated in this study for course credit (White: n = 109; 55.61%; Male: n = 94; 48.0%). Participants completed this study online and at home where they responded to a demographic form and several measures of the effects of COVID-19 and quality of life. The results suggest that COVID-19 life changes fully explain the negative relationship between the perceived danger of COVID-19 and quality of life, but only in those who have had COVID-19. In the group that has never had COVID-19, the only significant relationship was the positive relationship between the perceived danger of COVID-19 on COVID-19 life changes. The results suggest that researchers may consider steering research away from the perceived danger of COVID-19 and onto remedying life changes from COVID-19 to improve individuals' quality of life. I further discuss the theoretical findings, implications, limitations, and future directions.

Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 life changes; COVID-19 pandemic; Perceived danger; Quality of life.

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.