The COVID-19 Life Event and Individual Well-Being: Do Coping Behaviors Matter? An Abstract

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been vastly influencing the whole earth and billions of people all over the world face unexpected changes leading to major shifts in their daily routines (Lades et al., 2020), confronting public policy makers with serious challenges (Anderson et al., 2020); in the shortest possible time, they have to support their citizens to prevent possible deterioration of individual well-being (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). Also, marketing management must flexibly react to ensure an optimal targeting of customers and, thus, marketing success (Koschate-Fischer et al., 2018). This paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 life event on individuals’ perceived stress, resultant active coping behavior, and consequently individual well-being. Additionally, to better understand coping behaviors in response to COVID-19 and their relationship to well-being, several concrete coping behaviors are examined in depth. A suitable theoretical approach to examine the impact of the COVID-19 life event are theories of stress, which involve coping mechanisms (Moschis, 2007). To date, however, as the COVID-19 pandemic represents a new and yet rather unexplored life event, we do not know the exact role of perceived stress or active coping behavior in the context of this particular life event. Results of an empirical study with a panel of 242 European consumers (Mage = 39.41 years, 59.50% male) show that perceived stress and active coping behavior serially mediate the effect of the COVID-19 life event on individual well-being, such that the COVID-19 life event increases perceived stress, which in turn increases active coping behavior. Moreover, active coping behavior enhances individual well-being. An independent, in-depth examination of additional concrete coping behaviors reveals that the COVID-19 life event has caused changes in almost all areas of life. While some coping behaviors have increased (e.g., going for a walk, purchasing food), others have not (e.g., gardening, purchasing fashion). Both positive and negative correlations of coping behaviors with individual well-being exist suggesting that an increase in certain coping behaviors (e.g., online activities) can even decrease individual well-being. Taken together, our study presents an initial step towards answering major questions concerning the COVID-19 life event. In a theoretical sense, this study contributes to the life event literature by pointing out the specific paths to re-install individual well-being. In addition, more sophisticated knowledge on the relevance of a broad range of coping behaviors is generated. Further, this study is relevant for public policy because it stresses the importance of supporting individuals and reveals the benefit of communication campaigns addressing COVID-19, but also for marketing management as it uncovers that retailers should especially promote their products or services online while focusing on utilitarian products.