“Just getting along, together.” The relationship between narratives of interdependence and psychological well-being among American adults with disabilities during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic

This study examined the relationship between the theme of interdependence in the narratives of American adults with disabilities during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic and psychological well-being. In contrast to independence, interdependence has emerged as a focus of research about people with disabilities in both the humanistic discipline of disability studies and in prior psychological research. In the present study, 108 participants completed questionnaires assessing well-being and responded to three narrative prompts once a year between 2020 and 2022, resulting in a total of 952 narratives. Narratives were reliably coded for the new narrative variable of interdependence. In addition, narratives were also reliably coded for the narrative themes of independence, dependence, agency, submissiveness, communion, and disconnection. The results of multi-level modeling analyses indicated that the themes of interdependence and disconnection were most strongly associated with psychological well-being over time. Within-person analyses indicated that higher levels of interdependence were associated with lower levels of well-being in 2020 and with higher levels of well-being in 2022. These results (along with a qualitative case study) suggest that the associations between narrative themes and well-being are contextualized and may demonstrate unusual associations during periods of extreme events, like the COVID-19 pandemic. This study quantitatively establishes interdependence as an important narrative theme, one especially salient for people with disabilities. It also suggests that people with disabilities may offer alternative ways of narrating contemporary American identity that might serve as an example for non-disabled and disabled people alike.