Storytelling Elaboration and Hope During COVID-19 Shutdowns: Ties with College Adults’ Psychosocial Adjustment

Abstract

This study considered the college adults’ ways reports of trait hope and expressions of fact-based elaboration in reflections about family- and friend-based perseverance—as individual differences relevant to life challenges and ongoing pursuit toward goals—were associated with multiple reports of psychosocial adjustment. These reports were collected against the backdrop of college closures and disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic—a time of major stress and uncertainty in daily life for college adults. Two-hundred thirty-three adults (M age = 19.35 years; 36.9% female) were recruited from a large, central US university to complete computerized tasks and measures in the spring of 2020, after in-person activities at the university had been closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Expressions of elaboration were not directly associated with reports of well-being, mental health problems, or hope. Reports of hope were associated with greater well-being and fewer mental health problems. Interaction effects were supported for depressive and anxious symptoms. Students who were less hopeful and expressed more factual elaboration in life stories endorsed more mental health problems than peers. These findings point to additional nuances when considering the importance of narrative identity for psychosocial functioning and reinforce the importance of considering personality across multiple domains or levels (i.e., character, narrative identity).