Exploring the impact of passion engagement on the resilience of older adults during the covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Engaging in a passionate activity can be helpful. According to the Dualistic Model of Passion (DMP; Vallerand et al., 2003), passionate activities are described as either harmonious or obsessive. Harmonious passion have been associated with beneficial outcomes (e.g., affective and psychological well-being), while obsessive passions have been linked to deleterious outcomes (e.g., high negative affect and ill-being). Resilience refers to the ability to recover from adversity. Many protective factors that bolster resilience are also associated with harmonious passions. It was hypothesized that older adults with a harmonious passion would be more resilient than their obsessively passionate counterparts. Resilience was represented by a multivariate construct, encompassing adversity (i.e., psychological distress), positive adaptation (i.e., well- being), and protective factors. Using a sample of community-dwelling older-adults (n=92), this multivariate model was compared across harmonious and obsessive groups, with results indicating that passion groups did not differ. Additional exploratory analyses were conducted, wherein each component of resilience was compared across passion groups. The harmonious group scored higher on a measure of protective factors and lower on measure of adversity. No differences were noted for positive adaptation. This suggests that the overall resilience and positive mental health of older adults outweighed any differences due to passion orientation.