COVID-19 and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory: Do the Socioemotional Impacts of a Long-Term Pandemic Reflect Aging Tendencies?

Abstract

The Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) suggests that, as a person ages from young adulthood to older adulthood, a person's socioemotional goals tend to shift from knowledge-driven to emotionally driven (Carstensen, 2006). This shift can be affected by factors other than age, including illness (English and Carstensen (2015); Fung and Carstensen (2006); Sullivan-Singh, Stanton, and Low (2015)) and stress (Fung and Carstensen (2006); Clerkin (2020)). In this study, we tested the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic, being illness and stress related, should also create a socioemotional shift in younger adults. 246 Participants were surveyed with a battery of surveys, including the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, the Future Time Perspective Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the COVID-19 Impact Items (Cl) and the Pandemic-Related Stress Scale (PRSS). Findings supported our hypothesis that the larger impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic would be associated with a narrower future time perspective. Unexpectedly, however, this narrower future time perspective was associated with higher negative affect scores and lower positive affect and meaning in life scores.