Longitudinal examinations of changes in well-being during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: Testing the roles of extraversion and social distancing

Jongan Choi; Namhee Kim; Jinhyung Kim; Incheol Choi

doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104306

Longitudinal examinations of changes in well-being during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: Testing the roles of extraversion and social distancing

J Res Pers. 2022 Dec:101:104306. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104306. Epub 2022 Oct 11.

Authors

Jongan Choi^{1

2}, Namhee Kim³, Jinhyung Kim^{2

4}, Incheol Choi^{3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Kangwon National University, South Korea.
² Institute for Hope Research, Sogang University, South Korea.
³ Center for Happiness Studies, Seoul National University, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Sogang University, South Korea.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Seoul National University, South Korea.

Abstract

The present research, by using longitudinal data collected in South Korea (N = 69,986) during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic (1 January-7 April 2020), examined the pandemic-related changes in the relationship between extraversion and well-being. Multilevel analyses revealed that participants experienced decreased well-being during the pandemic. When analyzing the responses (n = 3,229) completed during all the periods encompassing the COVID-19-related events (e.g., outbreak of COVID-19), we found the greater within-person decreases in well-being among extraverts than introverts after the intensive social distancing. This finding suggests that social distancing, as a necessary means to curb the spread of COVID-19, inadvertently reduced well-being of extraverts. Implications for the person-environment fit literature, limitations, and future research avenues are discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19; Extraversion; Longitudinal study; Person-environment fit; Well-being.