Can Flow States Impact Covid Distress: A Comparison Among Four Groups in India

The present study aimed to assess the effects of flow states upon psychological distress experienced due to COVID-19 in a sample of 4 groups namely – healthcare workers (HCWs), undergraduate students, teachers and working professionals in organizations. Further, between group differences were studied to understand how these groups differed from each other along these two variables. The overall sample consisted of 204 participants, residing in Delhi NCR who were sampled via convenient and purposive sampling. Covid-19 Psychological Destruction scale (Akan, 2020) and Flow short scale (Rheinberg, Vollmeyer & Engeser, 2003) were administered following which the data was analyzed using Linear regression analysis, ANOVA and Tukey’s Post Hoc test. The results revealed that Flow predicted 18.6% of variance in COVID distress for the overall sample (p<0.01). However, individual analysis showed that this relationship was not significant for teachers particularly (p>0.05). Further, the ANOVA results revealed that the four groups significantly differed in their experience of both Flow and COVID distress. Reasons for these findings, limitations and future directions have been discussed.