Graduating from college is an important time of life transitions and career development for undergraduates and their future. Future self-identification, the connection between an individual’s current and future self, can negatively predict depression and utilize self-control as a mechanism to achieve later academic goals. Investigating an individual’s future self- identification, depression scores, and behavioral outcomes in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic can help optimize college graduate success in an uncertain world. The present study aimed to (1) determine if earlier future self-identification moderated the changes between later outcomes (e.g., depression, perceived alcohol consumption, and academic and career goals) from pre-COVID-19 to during COVID-19, (2) investigate if psychological resources (e.g., self-control and emotion regulation) had any intermediary effects between earlier future self-identification and later depression and behavioral outcomes during the pandemic, and (3) test for any moderation effects of future self-identification on the relationship between available psychological resources before COVID-19 and during COVID-19. The present research demonstrated that students with greater earlier future self-identification were less likely to change their academic and career goals and were less likely to experience symptoms of depression during the pandemic. Additionally, self-control was demonstrated as an intermediary factor between earlier future self-identification and later academic and career goal changes. These findings may help college graduates develop resilience in other stressful situations.
is exposed to the word’s meaning in an ambiguous fashion throughout different contexts. Many
studies have been conducted using CSWL tasks on both children and adults. Most of these
studies look at single-label pairings, which is when one object is paired with one word. More
recently, research has also started to look at double-label pairings. Double-label pairings consist
of one object being paired with two words. No study to date has compared adult and children’s
performance in a double-label design. This study’s aim was to better understand how adults and
children compare in these tasks. The current study conducted two experiments to compare adult
and children’s performance in a CSWL task in either a single-label and double-label design.
Results showed that adults were successful in both conditions but performed better in the
single-label condition than the double-label condition. Children on the other hand were
unsuccessful in both conditions and did not demonstrate learning. Several reasons for these
findings are discussed. These results highlight the need for further research that directly
compares age groups in CSWL tasks and for further research into the area of multiple-label
pairings.
was that there was a small sample size of only 29 children. In order to account for this, the sample sizes in Study 2 and Study 3 were combined. This combined data did show that children succeeded at the backwards integration condition. It is noteworthy to mention that backwards integration was above chance in Study 2 and in the Study 2 and 3 combination. Therefore, the overall results suggest that children may possibly be able to backwards integrate; however, no evidence of learning in any of the other conditions were present.