A Longitudinal Study On The Effects Of Non-Death Loss Caused By The COVID-19 Pandemic On Emerging Adult Graduates’ Thriving

This thesis aims to unveil the long-term impact of non-death loss on emerging adult graduates who are undergoing transition from the culture-environment change from school to workplace in the cultural context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic(June 2020 to November 2022).It is going to answer five research questions:(1)How has the non-death loss caused by COVID-19 affected emerging adults thriving in the long run?(2)How will the ongoing and indefinite nature of non-death loss be represented?(3)Will emerging adulthood negativity mediate the relationship between non-death loss and thriving?(4)Which coping strategies will mediate the relationship between non-death loss and thriving?(5)Will socio-cultural factors influence the above major variables in this research including non-death loss,emerging adulthood negativity,coping strategies,and thriving?This study was a quantitative survey that collected online questionnaire at three different time periods(valid N of T1= 629,N of T2=405,N of T3=357)with seven key aspects: demographic information,adopted Non-death Loss Scale,COVID Personal Impact Scale,adopted COVID Life Changes Scale,Emerging Adulthood Features Scale,Coping Strategies Scale,and Thriving Scale.Through data analysis by SPSS27.0 and Mplus 8,some major findings are as follows:(1)the impact of non-death loss is enduring and will be felt through emerging adulthood negativity;(2)the ongoing and indefinite nature of non-death loss was captured through computing them to new latent variable: Non-death loss variable,whose indicators were non-death loss T1&T3 and COVID personal impact T1&T2&T3;(3)emerging adulthood negativity had full mediation effect between non-death loss and thriving;(4)as a parallel mediator,secondary coping acceptance also had full mediation effect between non-death loss and thriving;(5)primary coping is less effective in helping emerging adults recovering from non-death loss and move on;(6)participants’ socio-cultural factors will influence the significant variables in this study.By investigating the mechanism between non-death loss and thriving,this thesis uncovered how to make sense of emerging adulthood theory during the COVID-19 pandemic,a new cultural context,and showed that secondary coping acceptance was effective in dealing with non-death loss and leading to higher level of thriving.