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. 2021 Sep 15;16(9):e0255491.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255491. eCollection 2021.

Changes in values and well-being amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

Agnieszka Bojanowska  1 , Łukasz D Kaczmarek  2 , Maciej Koscielniak  1 , Beata Urbańska  1
Affiliations

Changes in values and well-being amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

Agnieszka Bojanowska et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

COVID-19 caused a global change in the lifestyles of people around the world. It provided a unique opportunity to examine how external circumstances impact two crucial aspects of functioning relating to "who I am" (values) and "how I feel" (well-being). Participants (N = 215) reported their values and subjective and eudaimonic well-being, nine months before the first lockdown in Poland and two weeks and four weeks into the first lockdown. We observed increased valuing of self-direction, security, conformity, humility, caring, and universalism and a decrease in valuing hedonism. Individuals experienced decreased subjective and eudaimonic well-being, with women responding with stronger negative affect intensity relative to men. Finally, we identified that individuals who were more open to change before the COVID-19 pandemic responded with higher eudaimonic well-being two weeks into lockdown relative to their less open to change peers. This study is unique in that it shows that well-being and individually held values are flexible and adaptive systems that react to external circumstances such as global critical events.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Changes in well-being and values mine months before, two weeks after, and four weeks after the lockdown.
Note. T1 = nine months before the lockdown, T2 = two weeks into the lockdown, T3 = four weeks into the lockdown. Bars represent standard errors.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Summary of the findings and practical implications.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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