Selected Aspects of Self-Regulation: How People Cope with Danger and Change in the Context of COVID-19 (Research in Poland and Ukraine).

This study examines how individuals adapt to situations of danger and change arising from the COVID-19 pandemic by testing a model based on self-regulatory mechanisms. The model includes three key elements: (1) the intensity of negative emotions as a manifestation of affective reaction to situations of danger and change and, at the same time, as a signal activating self-regulatory processes; (2) protective mechanisms in change, that is, the perception of goal congruence and a positive future self; and (3) the individual sense of danger and the overall sense of danger at various physical distances to the self. The study was conducted online. Participants completed a set of standardized questionnaires assessing negative emotions, perceived danger, and protective mechanisms across three measurement waves corresponding to successive stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The model was validated in three waves of the pandemic in Poland and one in Ukraine. To verify the relationships between the measured variables, a structural equation model was constructed using the RStudio software (version 1.2, 2019) with the Lavaan package. The results were consistent with the prediction model, which considers the relationships between the intensity of negative emotions and the intensity of protective mechanisms in change and perceived danger. Two factors within negative emotions were identified, each interacting differently with self-regulation. Negative emotions were related to the intensity of perceived danger, while protective mechanisms were linked to the reduction in danger. The results confirm the complex nature of self-regulation mechanisms both affectively and cognitively and also their orientation toward the future, which constitutes a protective resource. The study's limitations include the online method, which limits standardization, control, and the sample's limited randomness and inequivalence of measurements and sampling in Ukraine and Poland.