Changes in value priorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic—A 4-year cross-sectional study with German students

Christian Hannes, Sarah Schiffer and Rüdiger von Nitzsch

PLOS ONE, 2024, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-25

Abstract: In March 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic. Since then, the German government has tried to control the spread of the virus with various restrictions. These restrictions had a direct impact on the life of German students. In this study, we investigate to what extent the restrictions led to a change of value priorities of German students. From January 2019 to January 2022, we conducted a cross-sectional study with four measurement points and, in total, 1,328 participants. Two measurement points were before the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Germany, one in the second lockdown phase and the third after two years in the pandemic. In this study, the students were asked to indicate their value priorities while solving a real-world decision problem important to them. Results suggest increased value priorities of the values Intellectual Fulfillment and Environment and Nature and a decrease of Family and Partner value priority as a direct effect of the second lockdown phase. We also found small differences regarding value priorities between the male and female subjects. The data show bounce-back effects as the pandemic became more normal to the students. In the long run, value priorities seem to be stable, with the exception of a longer-lasting increase in Freedom and Independence.

Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0297236

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297236

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