Abstract
Did the COVID-19 pandemic promote character growth? Studies using sequential samples suggest that collective life events can result in character growth, but their conclusions have been questioned. This study used three approaches to examine character growth during the first wave of the pandemic: perceived changes in oneself and in a close other, and a longitudinal analysis of changes. In addition, we tested whether character strengths assessed before the pandemic predicted specific instances of growth, that is, engagement in volunteering and compliance with regulations during the pandemic. German-speaking participants ( N = 366, 76.5% female, mean age: 45.33 years) who had completed an assessment of character strengths before the pandemic reported on perceived changes in character strengths, engagement in volunteering, and compliance with regulations. A subsample also completed a second assessment of character strengths. The results showed that (a) participants reported perceived changes for most character strengths in both themselves and close others, while (b) longitudinal increases were only observed for humility and prudence. Pre-pandemic character strengths predicted (c) engagement in volunteering and (d) compliance with regulations. We conclude that actual character growth was smaller than the perceived changes but that the character strengths did predict relevant behaviors related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
Did the COVID-19 pandemic promote character growth? Studies using sequential samples suggest that collective life events can result in character growth, but their conclusions have been questioned
The associations for the correlations between posttraumatic growth and differences in strengths (Figure 4, right panel) were much smaller in size and only reached significance for spirituality. When we compared these relationships with the coefficients reported by Peterson et al (2008), we found that the overlap between the patterns of relationships was considerably smaller, rs(22) 1⁄4 .33 (Spearman correlation between the 24 correlation coefficients reported by Peterson et al, 2008, and the associations between posttraumatic growth with changes in character strengths in the present study)
First and foremost, our study shows that the different data sources considered for character growth (i.e., (1) measured changes in character strengths before and after the first wave of the COVID crisis and (2) retrospectively perceived changes in either oneself or others) did not converge well, which is in line with previous findings (e.g., Frazier et al, 2009)
Summary
Did the COVID-19 pandemic promote character growth? Studies using sequential samples suggest that collective life events can result in character growth, but their conclusions have been questioned. The literature has long suggested that such changes in character strengths (or character growth) may take place following major adverse historical events (Peterson & Seligman, 2003), recovery from illness (Peterson et al, 2006), or traumatic experiences (Peterson et al, 2008; Schueller et al, 2015) These studies have advanced the idea that adverse life events might, despite their apparent undesirable effects, contribute to growth, and that this growth may be reflected in changes in character strengths. The main goal of the current study was to investigate character growth in the context of the COVID19 pandemic to identify any changes in character strengths and to determine whether character strengths assessed before the crisis predicted compliance with regulations and engagement in volunteering during the crisis. We were interested in whether longitudinal findings on changes in character strengths were comparable to approaches that only examined post-event assessments or subjectively perceived changes in character strengths
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