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

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 l...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2024-01, Vol.19 (1), p.e0297236-e0297236
Main Authors: Hannes, Christian, Schiffer, Sarah, von Nitzsch, Rüdiger
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Care and treatment
Communicable Disease Control
Constrictions
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Decision making
Disease control
Disease Outbreaks
Female
Gender differences
Humans
Hypotheses
Male
Mental health
Pandemics
Priorities
Research methodology
Students
Viral diseases
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0297236