The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened lives and livelihoods, imperiled families and communities, and disrupted developmental milestones globally. Among the critical developmental disruptions experienced is the transition to college, which is common and foundational for personal and social exploration. During college shutdowns (spring 2020), we recruited 633 first-year U.S. students (mean age = 18.83 years, 71.3% cisgender women) to provide narratives about the impacts of the pandemic. We tested the ways narrative features were associated with concurrent and longitudinal COVID stressors, psychosocial adjustment, and identity development. Narrative growth expressed in spring 2020 was positively associated with psychosocial adjustment and global identity development and was negatively associated with mental health concerns. Associations were supported concurrently and at 1-year follow-up. Growth partly explained associations between COVID stressors and students’ adjustment. Our findings reinforce the importance of growth for resilience and underscore the importance of connective reasoning as people navigate a chronic stress.
AdlerJ. M. (2012). Living into the story: Agency and coherence in a longitudinal study of narrative identity development and mental health over the course of psychotherapy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(2), 367–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025289
2.
AdlerJ. M.Lodi-SmithJ.PhilippeF. L.HouleI. (2016). The incremental validity of narrative identity in predicting well-being: A review of the field and recommendations for the future. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 20(2), 142–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868315585068
ArnettJ. J. (2014). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. Oxford University Press.
5.
BenjaminiY.HochbergY. (1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, 57, 289–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2517-6161.1995.tb02031.x
6.
BookerJ. A.FivushR.GraciM. E. (2021). Narrative identity informs psychological adjustment: Considering three themes captured across five time points and two event valences. Journal of Personality, 90(3), 324–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12668
7.
BookerJ. A.FivushR.GraciM. E.HeitzH.HudakL. A.JovanovicT.RothbaumB. O.StevensJ. S. (2020). Longitudinal changes in trauma narratives over the first year and associations with coping and mental health. Journal of Affective Disorders, 272, 116–124. https://doi.org/10/ggtqx8
8.
BookerJ. A.HernandezE.TalleyK. E.DunsmoreJ. C. (2021). Connecting with others: Dispositional and situational relatedness during the college transition. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 39(2), 198–220. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211034566
9.
CharlesN. E.StrongS. J.BurnsL. C.BullerjahnM. R.SerafineK. M. (2021). Increased mood disorder symptoms, perceived stress, and alcohol use among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychiatry Research, 296, Article 113706. https://doi.org/10/gj4r25
10.
CôtéJ. E. (2006). Emerging adulthood as an institutionalized moratorium: Risks and benefits to identity formation. In ArnettJ. J.TannerJ. L. (Eds.), Emerging adults in America: Coming of age in the 21st century (pp. 85–116). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/11381-004
11.
FivushR.BookerJ. A.GraciM. E. (2017). Ongoing narrative meaning-making within events and across the life span. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 37(2), 127–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276236617733824
12.
GraciM. E.WattsA. L.FivushR. (2018). Examining the factor structure of narrative meaning-making for stressful events and relations with psychological distress. Memory, 26(9), 1220–1232. https://doi.org/10/gfvtzq
13.
GrysmanA.FivushR.MerrillN. A.GraciM. (2016). The influence of gender and gender typicality on autobiographical memory across event types and age groups. Memory & Cognition, 44(6), 856–868. https://doi.org/10/gf5g25
14.
HurtadoS.CarterD. F. (1997). Effects of college transition and perceptions of the campus racial climate on Latino college students’ sense of belonging. Sociology of Education, 70(4), 324–345. https://doi.org/10/g8w
15.
IshitaniT. T. (2006). Studying attrition and degree completion behavior among first-generation college students in the United States. The Journal of Higher Education, 77(5), 861–885. https://doi.org/10/bfqzn4
16.
KeltonR.GreenhootA. F. (2020). Covid-Related Events Scale: College student report form [Unpublished manuscript]. University of Kansas.
17.
LockeB. D.McAleaveyA. A.ZhaoY.LeiP.-W.HayesJ. A.CastonguayL. G.LiH.TateR.LinY.-C. (2012). Development and initial validation of the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms–34. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 45(3), 151–169. https://doi.org/10.1177/0748175611432642
18.
LuyckxK.SchwartzS. J.BerzonskyM. D.SoenensB.VansteenkisteM.SmitsI.GoossensL. (2008). Capturing ruminative exploration: Extending the four-dimensional model of identity formation in late adolescence. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 58–82.
19.
MansfieldC. D.PasupathiM.McLeanK. C. (2015). Is narrating growth in stories of personal transgressions associated with increased well-being, self-compassion, and forgiveness of others?Journal of Research in Personality, 58, 69–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2015.05.008
20.
McLeanK. C.DunlapD.JenningsS. C.LitvitskiyN. S.LilgendahlJ. P. (2022). Stability and change in autobiographical reasoning: A 4-year longitudinal study of narrative identity development. Journal of Personality, 90(3), 343–356. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12669
21.
McLeanK. C.SyedM.PasupathiM.AdlerJ. M.DunlopW. L.DrustrupD.FivushR.GraciM. E.LilgendahlJ. P.Lodi-SmithJ.McAdamsD. P.McCoyT. P. (2020). The empirical structure of narrative identity: The initial Big Three. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(4), 920–944. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000247
22.
PasupathiM.BookerJ. A.EllM. A.GreenhootA. F.McLeanK. C.WainrybC.FivushR. (2022). College, interrupted: Profiles in first-year college students responses to the COVID-19 pandemic across one year. Emerging Adulthood. Advance online publication.
23.
PasupathiM.HoytT. (2009). The development of narrative identity in late adolescence and emergent adulthood: The continued importance of listeners. Developmental Psychology, 45(2), 558–574. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014431
24.
PelletierJ. H.RakkarJ.AuA. K.FuhrmanD.ClarkR. S. B.HorvatC. M. (2021). Trends in US pediatric hospital admissions in 2020 compared with the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Network Open, 4(2), Article e2037227. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.37227
25.
ReeseE.HadenC. A.Baker-WardL.BauerP.FivushR.OrnsteinP. A. (2011). Coherence of personal narratives across the lifespan: A multidimensional model and coding method. Journal of Cognition and Development, 12(4), 424–462. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2011.587854
RosenthalD. A.GurneyR. M.MooreS. M. (1981). From trust on intimacy: A new inventory for examining Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 10, 525–537. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02087944
28.
RyanR. M.DeciE. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10/c48g8h
29.
RyffC. D.KeyesC. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 719–727. https://doi.org/10/bsnq6p
30.
SeligJ. P.PreacherK. J. (2008). Monte Carlo method for assessing mediation: An interactive tool for creating confidence intervals for indirect effects [Computer software]. http://quantpsy.org/
31.
SolbergV. S.O’BrienK.VillarealP.KennelR.DavisB. (1993). Self-efficacy and Hispanic college students: Validation of the College Self-Efficacy Instrument. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 15(1), 80–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/07399863930151004
32.
VanakenL.BijttebierP.FivushR.HermansD. (2022). Narrative coherence predicts emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: A two-year longitudinal study. Cognition and Emotion, 36(1), 70–81. https://doi.org/10/gndfkf
33.
VanakenL.BijttebierP.HermansD. (2021). An investigation of the coherence of oral narratives: Associations with mental health, social support and the coherence of written narratives. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 602725. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.602725
34.
WatersT. E. A.FivushR. (2015). Relations between narrative coherence, identity, and psychological well-being in emerging adulthood. Journal of Personality, 83(4), 441–451. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12120
35.
WatersT. E. A.KöberC.RabyK. L.HabermasT.FivushR. (2019). Consistency and stability of narrative coherence: An examination of personal narrative as a domain of adult personality. Journal of Personality, 87(2), 151–162. https://doi.org/10/gc2hkz
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
