Avery James, Leboeuf Julie, Holding Anne, Moore Amanda, Levine Shelby, Koestner Richard
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Canada.
Pers Individ Dif. 2023 Jan;200:111869. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2022.111869. Epub 2022 Aug 24.
Self-determination theory proposes that intrinsic aspirations protect against negative mental health outcomes by satisfying people's basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. The present study investigated this relationship using two four-wave prospective longitudinal studies which followed undergraduate students across the Canadian academic calendar (September to May). The first was conducted across 2018-19 and the second across 2019-20. By comparing these two samples, we examined whether baseline levels of intrinsic aspirations moderated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of depressive symptoms. Three main findings emerged, the first being that students reported higher levels of depressive symptoms in Spring 2020 than in Spring 2019. Second, students with more intrinsic aspirations in the pre-pandemic sample (2018-19) experienced fewer depressive symptoms from December to May while students with more intrinsic aspirations in the pandemic sample (2019-20) experienced more depressive symptoms during this period. Lastly, the latter relationship was mediated by need frustration, whereby students with higher levels of intrinsic aspirations experienced greater need frustration during the pandemic year. Together, these findings suggest that although intrinsic aspirations typically protect against negative psychological outcomes, the unique need frustrating context of the pandemic made them a risk factor for depression.
自我决定理论提出，内在抱负通过满足人们自主、归属和能力的基本心理需求来预防负面心理健康结果。本研究使用两项四波前瞻性纵向研究调查了这种关系，这两项研究跟踪了加拿大整个学年（9月至5月）的本科生。第一项研究在2018 - 19年进行，第二项研究在2019 - 20年进行。通过比较这两个样本，我们研究了内在抱负的基线水平是否会调节新冠疫情对抑郁症状发展的影响。出现了三个主要发现，第一个是学生在2020年春季报告的抑郁症状水平高于2019年春季。第二，在疫情前样本（2018 - 19年）中内在抱负更强的学生在12月至5月期间经历的抑郁症状较少，而在疫情样本（2019 - 20年）中内在抱负更强的学生在此期间经历的抑郁症状更多。最后，后一种关系由需求挫折介导，即在疫情年中内在抱负水平较高的学生经历了更大的需求挫折。总之，这些发现表明，尽管内在抱负通常能预防负面心理结果，但疫情独特的需求挫折背景使其成为抑郁的一个风险因素。
