The Relationships between Character Strengths and Subjective Wellbeing: Evidence from Greece under Lockdown during COVID-19 Pandemic

Dimitra Vasileiou, Despina Moraitou, Vasileios Papaliagkas, Christos Pezirkianidis, Anastasios Stalikas, Georgia Papantoniou and Maria Sofologi
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Dimitra Vasileiou: Laboratory of Psychology, Section of Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Despina Moraitou: Laboratory of Psychology, Section of Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Vasileios Papaliagkas: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Alexander Campus, International Hellenic University, P.O. Box 141, 57400 Thessaloniki, Greece
Christos Pezirkianidis: Lab of Positive Psychology, Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 17671 Athens, Greece
Anastasios Stalikas: Lab of Positive Psychology, Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 17671 Athens, Greece
Georgia Papantoniou: Laboratory of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI—AUTH), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
Maria Sofologi: Laboratory of Psychology, Department of Early Childhood Education, School of Education, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 20, 1-28

Abstract: COVID-19 was first identified in December 2019. As long as this type of coronavirus was new, the main way for governments to avoid the spread of the infection was enforced quarantine. Besides public health protection, quarantine can have a psychological impact on the residents, with main symptoms being angst, anxiety, depressive, and PTSD symptoms. As it has been found that character strengths can promote subjective wellbeing, the purpose of the study was to examine this relationship under the new situation of quarantine in the Greek population in adults who were in quarantine for at least two weeks. The total sample consisted of 354 participants who were aged 18–72-years-old. A total of 263 participants were women (74.3%), 91 were men (25.7%), and 94.6% of them were highly educated. The sample was a convenience sample. The tools used were PANAS, PERMA and finally VIA-114GR. The data analysis was completed using SPSS software version 26.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2019. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0. Armonk, NY, USA: IBM Corp) and EQS 6.1 (Multivariate Software Inc.: Encino, CA, USA, 2006). The results showed that love, curiosity, persistence, hope, and zest are strongly associated with subjective wellbeing, even in conditions such as quarantine, and can support specific aspects of it.

Keywords: eudaimonic wellbeing; hedonic wellbeing; positive psychology; COVID-19; character strengths (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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