EXPERIENCE PERSONAL WELL-BEING IN THE FIRST STAGE OF PANDEMIC COVID-19

Abstract

Annotation. The paper presents the study of the experiencing personal well-being (N=263).The aim of the study was to identify the dynamics of experiencing personal well-being in the pandemic. Theobject is the personal well-being of Ukrainians. The results of the study of 4 groups are compared which wereconducted in 2018 (before the pandemic) - 100 people, in March (80 people), April (42 people) and August(41 people) of 2020.Methods. E. Diener’s Life Satisfaction Scale (SWLS) and questions from the European Social Survey(2013) were used. The surveyed respondents were the residents of different regions of Ukraine; the averageage is 34.95 years.Result and conclusion. It is demonstrated that the level of personal well-being has not changed. Nohedonistic adaptation was observed, as the response to pandemic stress among Ukrainians was not pronounced.The transformation of the criteria for assessing personal well-being was detected. The first reaction in a situationof uncertainty was the shift in priorities, a search for the personal sense of what is happening. The differentiation of the structure of personal well-being is lost, the criteria become vague. At the second stage (adjustment) therecan be observed the acceptance of the pandemic as an inevitable fact. The personal boundaries are restructuredconsidering the new situation – there appear new criteria for personal freedom. At the third stage (adaptation)the differentiation of the personal well-being structure to the level of the beginning of the pandemic is restored,i.e. the search for new criteria of personal well-being is completed. The share of components of personalwell-being has changed. While in the pre-quarantine period the most significant was the search for positiveemotions (hedonistic component), in the initial adjustment to the crisis conditions of the pandemic, the shareof the eudaemonic component – the search for sense in life – increased.The spread of COVID is a factor not of eudaemonic but of emotional well-being – the reduction of positiveaffect. At the second stage the key factors of personal well-being were optimism and trust in people. Theimportance of social trust is growing. At the third stage the main factor of personal well-being was the abilityto master new activities and creativity.