The role of meaning violations in distress following COVID-19 pandemic stressors
BACKGROUND: -pandemic stressors. We hypothesised that these meaning violations would be positively related to distress and that changes in life meaning over time would mediate the link between peri-pandemic meaning violations and post-stressor distress. METHOD: = 380) completed online questionnaires in May-July 2020 and June-July 2021. We investigated the predictive relations with correlation, regression, and mediation analyses. RESULTS: Peri-pandemic and pre-pandemic meaning violations were positively related to distress following peri-pandemic stressors. Changes in life meaning did not mediate the link between peri-pandemic meaning violations and post-stressor distress. CONCLUSION: Meaning violations may constitute a risk factor for post-stressor distress. Since meaning can be restored after a violation, research and clinical practice may benefit from considering the role of meaning-making in adaptation to stressors and recovery from distress.
Authors
- Judith K. Daniels (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6304-2310)
- Brian D. Ostafin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9739-2757)
- Lea Jasmin Seidel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0000-2378)
Institutions
- University of Groningen (NL)
- MSH Medical School Hamburg – University of Applied Sciences and Medical University (DE)
- University Psychiatric Hospital (SI)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Psychology and Health
- Published
- 2026-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2026.2648618
- Primary Topic
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00