Future Anxiety Under Covid-19 Circumstances: Testing The Effect Of Gratitude And Mediating Role Of Threat Perception
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2024
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ankara Üniversitesi
Abstract
The Covid-19 outbreak increased the importance of dispositional qualities and easy-touse self-help strategies to promote mental well-being. Previous research indicate that
disposition to gratitude enhances well-being by protecting mental health. However,
evidence for the efcacy of gratitude-inducing interventions in preventing psychological
problems is mixed. Further, data on the gratitude-well-being link under Covid-19
circumstances are inconclusive. In the present reseach, we examined the role of trait
gratitude and gratitude-listing intervention in alleviating future anxiety during the
pandemic, and the mediating role of perceived realistic and symbolic threats from Covid19. In the rst study, a correlational study (N = 405), participants rated the predictor and
outcome measures—the scales of gratitude, future anxiety, and perceived realistic and
symbolic threats from Covid-19. In the second study, a pretest-posttest intervention study
(N = 150), participants were randomly assigned to three conditions: to list grateful
experiences or important daily life events every two days for a month, or to complete only
the pretest and posttest measures. Results indicated that disposition to gratitude was
associated with lower future anxiety (study-1), whereas the gratitude-listing intervention
did not reduce this anxiety (study-2). Furthermore, in both studies, the perceived Covid-19
threats did not mediate the relationship between gratitude and future anxiety.
Exploratory qualitative analyses of participants' gratitude lists and feedback in the
second study showed that the pandemic situation hindered the benets of the
intervention. Overall, the results suggest that trait gratitude is more strongly associated
with alleviation of psychological distress during the Covid-19 pandemic than gratitude
listing. This supports the accumulating data that gratitude interventions, while benecial
for well-being, have limited effectiveness in reducing symptoms of ill-being, such as
anxiety.
Description
Keywords
Gratitude, Gratitude Interventions, Future Anxiety, Symbolic Threat, Realistic Threat, Covid-19