Volume 16, Issue 2 p. 632-652
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Psychological need fulfillment as a source of resilience: Its protective role in concerns and symptoms of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic

Joachim Waterschoot

Corresponding Author

Joachim Waterschoot

Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Correspondence

Joachim Waterschoot, Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.

Email: [email protected]

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Sofie Morbée

Sofie Morbée

Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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Bart Soenens

Bart Soenens

Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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Omer Van den Bergh

Omer Van den Bergh

Department of Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

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Eveline Raemdonck

Eveline Raemdonck

Maison des Sciences Humaines, Faculty of Psychological Sciences and Education, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

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Marie Brisbois

Marie Brisbois

Institute for Research in the Psychological Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

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Mathias Schmitz

Mathias Schmitz

Institute for Research in the Psychological Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

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Olivier Klein

Olivier Klein

Maison des Sciences Humaines, Faculty of Psychological Sciences and Education, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

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Olivier Luminet

Olivier Luminet

Institute for Research in the Psychological Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS), Brussels, Belgium

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Pascaline Van Oost

Pascaline Van Oost

Institute for Research in the Psychological Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

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Vincent Yzerbyt

Vincent Yzerbyt

Institute for Research in the Psychological Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

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Maarten Vansteenkiste

Maarten Vansteenkiste

Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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First published: 20 November 2023
Citations: 1

Funding information: The present research was financially supported by the Belgian Federal Ministry of Health through RIZIV (Rijksinstituut voor ziekte- en invaliditeitsverzekering)/INAMI (institut national de maladie-invalidité).

Abstract

The essential role of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in well-being has been demonstrated convincingly. Yet whether their fulfillment also serves as a source of resilience in the face of adversity has received limited attention. A longitudinal sample of Belgian citizens (N = 1869; Mage = 56.23, 68% female) completed an online questionnaire on 13 occasions between April 2020 and April 2022 during the COVID-19 crisis. Multilevel analyses showed that need fulfillment, both at the between- and within-person level, related negatively to concerns, even after controlling for exposure to personal risks. Further, the association between concerns and changes in symptoms of depression and anxiety was dampened when people reported higher need fulfillment compared with others (i.e. between-person level) or when they reported periodically more need fulfillment than usual (i.e. within-person level). This moderation effect occurred on top of the systematic negative main effect of need fulfillment on symptoms of anxiety and depression. Psychological need fulfillment serves as a resilience factor (a) by reducing concerns in the face of adverse events (i.e. an appraisal effect) and (b) by mobilizing resources that help individuals to deal better with concerns (i.e. a coping effect). Theoretical and practical implications of the resilience effect of need fulfillment are discussed.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The R scripts to carry out the analyses are publicly available on Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/e8taf/?view_only=2e78877c13ac43d6882611a5dda0e043. Datasets are hosted in Zenodo (a public repository) and are available upon request and for replication purposes only (after contacting responsible researcher).