Depression and Creativity During COVID-19: Psychological Resilience as a Mediator and Deliberate Rumination as a Moderator

Frontiers in Psychology 12 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Purpose:The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has had a significant impact on people’s lives, has apparently increased the incidence of depression. Although the topic of how depression affects creativity is contested, previous research has revealed a significant relationship between the two. The purpose of this study is to further investigate the relationship and the mechanisms that operate between depression and creativity.Methods:A total of 881 students at an independent college in China completed a questionnaire consisting of the Self-Reported Depression Scale, Runco Ideational Behavior Scale, Psychological Resilience Scale, Deliberate Rumination Scale and demographic information. Among the respondents, 317 (36.0%) were male and 564 (64.0%) were female, all of whom were from the same grade. Correlation analyses were conducted, and then the researchers carried out mediation analysis and developed a moderated mediation model.Results:The results indicated that (a) depression was positively related to creativity (r= 0.085,p< 0.05); (b) psychological resilience mediated the relationship between depression and creativity; specifically, psychological resilience was negatively related to depression (r= −0.462,p< 0.01), which in turn was positively related to creativity (r= 0.198,p< 0.01); and (c) deliberate rumination moderated the relationship between depression and psychological resilience, showing a significant negative correlation with depression (r= 0.138,p< 0.01), psychological resilience (r= 0.078,p< 0.05), and creativity (r= 0.288,p< 0.05); specifically, higher levels of deliberate rumination strengthened the negative correlation between psychological resilience and depression.Conclusion:The results suggest that depression is a positive predictor of creativity and may promote creativity to some extent. Further, individuals with greater psychological resilience are more creative than those with less psychological resilience, as it is a question of whether they can and to what extent they can effectively use depression as an emotional resource. Last, an individual’s level of deliberate rumination moderates the mediating process, especially at the stage where depression is associated with psychological resilience. These findings advance understanding of the mechanisms that operate between depression and creativity.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 99,410

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-05-06

Downloads
17 (#1,044,852)

6 months
6 (#694,321)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?