Growing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: The interplay among transformational leadership in government,public trust,and posttraumatic growth

Abstract

Individuals may experience positive changes or gain growths after struggling with traumas or challenging circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess potential levels of posttraumatic growth (PTG) of the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic and PTG's associations with perceptions of transformational leadership in local government and public trust. The data of a probability sample of 1011 community-dwelling adults (61.2% females; Mean age = 41.2 years, SD = 15.8) in Macao, China, were collected via a telephone poll survey. Multiple regression analyses were conducted and a bootstrapping approach was utilized to test the hypothesized moderating effects and mediating effects of trust in local government on the association between perceived transformational leadership and PTG, respectively. Results showed that about half of the respondents reported at least a medium level of PTG. Whereas perceived transformational leadership in the Macao local government was positively associated with four individual aspects of PTG (i.e., appreciation of life, new possibilities, personal strength, and relating to others) as well as the overall PTG, while controlling for the demographic variables, trust in the local government showed no moderating or mediating effects in these associations. Our findings suggest the value of governments’ transformational leadership in promoting people's PTG in the face of public crises such as COVID-19. More transformational leadership behaviors, such as attending to citizens’ personal needs and conveying an inspirational vision, in government are called for to bring about greater positive responses from individuals and ensure social vitality and resilience during this long-term public health battle.

Keywords

Posttraumatic growth perceived transformational leadership public trust COVID-19 Chinese

Introduction

Shortly after its first outbreak at the end of 2019, the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) became an enduring global health crisis, severely affecting individuals’ physical and psychological well-being (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). Due to the extremely high transmission and mutation rates of the virus (Tang et al., 2020), the COVID-19 epidemic has become the new norm of people's daily life and may have long-lasting effects on individuals and societies as a whole. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about changes in various aspects of people's life, such as dietary patterns, cigarette consumption, food intake, sleep patterns, and family relations (Cancello et al., 2020; Chen et al., 2021b; Prime et al., 2020; Zhou et al., 2021). Whereas most of the extant research has focused on the adverse effects of the pandemic on well-being, such as COVID-19-related anxiety and depression (Chen et al., 2021a; Vindegaard & Benros, 2020; Wang et al., 2021), some positive changes have been noted, such as people leading healthier lifestyles (Van der Werf et al., 2021). However, in general, the potential positive growth factors associated with the normalization and resurgence of COVID-19 have been relatively neglected (Tamiolaki & Kalaitzaki, 2020). A few studies focusing on PTG found that individuals’ experiences during COVID-19 can lead to growth (Chen et al., 2021c; Kalaitzaki, 2021; Northfield, & Johnston, 2021; Zhen & Zhou, 2021), albeit the numbers that experience such growth can be small. The present study aimed to assess levels of PTG among community-dwelling Chinese adults in Macao, China during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring potential governmental correlates of PTG, which may show ways in which the general public might find meaning, appreciation for life, and a potential opening for new directions in the process of adjusting to the realities of living during COVID-19.

PTG amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

PTG refers to the positive changes or growth individuals experience after struggling with traumas or challenging circumstances (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004). These positive changes can be classified into five domains; namely, relating to others (i.e., feeling closer to others), new possibilities (i.e., discovering new possibilities in one's life), personal strength (i.e., improved/strengthened willpower and competence), spiritual change (i.e., heightened spiritual experiences and deeper spiritual thinking), and appreciation for life (i.e., having/showing greater appreciation of life; Cann et al., 2010). Recent research has demonstrated that COVID-19 can lead to PTG in various populations, such as frontline nurses (Chen et al., 2021c; Li et al., 2021), caregivers of children (Stallard et al., 2021), and members of the general public (Kalaitzaki, 2021; Vazquez et al., 2021), showing that some individuals can gain growth during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., 39.3% of respondents experienced PTG; Chen et al., 2021). Given individual differences with respect to adjusting to challenging circumstances (Wilson, 2004), researchers have aimed to identify potential antecedents to PTG, with most focusing on personal correlates, such as psychological resilience (Lyu et al., 2021), deliberate rumination (Cui et al., 2021), and positive core beliefs (Vazquez et al., 2021). Although COVID-19 is a collective trauma (Masiero et al., 2020; Stanley et al., 2021), to our knowledge only one study investigated institutional variables that might affect the public's PTG: Ellena et al. (2021) found significant positive associations between trust toward institutions in Italy (government; European Union) and PTG. When facing a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, the leadership and governance of governments, along with their attitude, policy, and administration of health systems, are essential to the effectiveness of responses to the crisis (Brinkerhoff et al., 2019; Dodds et al., 2020; Phillips et al., 2022). The degree to which citizens will actively cooperate with and support the crisis management policy of governments is also crucial to consider. Given the vital role that certain types of leadership in governments play in motivating the general public to respond to great challenges, such as the COVID-19 epidemic, in a positive manner and even gain strength from the challenge (Yu & Li, 2020), in the current study we aimed to test whether and how governmental transformational leadership and public trust in government may be associated with PTG.

Transformational leadership as a potential facilitator of PTG

Transformational leadership (Bass, 1985) is a superior form of leadership that is usually characterized by charismatic leaders possessing long-term vision and willingness to care about the developmental potentials of their followers and their groups/organizations. Transformational leadership necessitates the awareness of higher-order needs (e.g., thinking beyond one's short-term personal interests but long-term collective interests) of the followers and the actual changes in followers’ attitudes. Instead of merely using rewards and punishment to promote followers’ performance in a transactional setting, transformational leaders motivate and inspire their followers to achieve better performance and reach higher goals by transforming followers’ beliefs, views, and values. Transformational leaders engage in inspirational behaviors, such as expressing confidence and emphasizing individuals’ collective identity. They carefully consider followers’ personal needs based on their specific situation and behave as a role model that followers are likely to emulate. Empirical evidence supporting the positive influence of transformational leadership on followers’ job performance and psychological well-being is abundant (Arnold, 2017). In recent research, transformational leaders have been shown to positively affect employees’ physical and psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic (McCombs & Williams, 2021), as well as help prepare employees for changes resulting from the pandemic (Zaman et al., 2020).

In advocating transformational leadership in government, Koehler (1996) argued that to gain political support, government leaders should take the initiative to change the status quo and proactively convey their visions to their followers, while Nye Jr (2006) further suggested that a transformational government leader would not only attract followers at home but also abroad. Empirical research has also shown that transformational leaders in government helped employees work more effectively with enhanced work commitments during the COVID-19 pandemic (Almohtaseb et al., 2021). In the face of such a public crisis, a government not only requests its employees (e.g., civil servants) to follow its directions and strategies but also needs to mobilize all residents to follow and adhere to its vision. The government's attitudes, actions, and policies are critical, as these need public support and cooperation and can also provide a model for, and insight into, how citizens may perceive and positively cope with the crisis, in which process growths such as gaining of strength, a closer connection to others, and appreciation for life may occur. Specifically, transformational leadership behaviors of the government during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as those expressing concern for residents with the desire to address their personal needs, convey a strong sense of goal and collective mission, and may provide the public with faith and strength in its collective ability to fight the pandemic. In the current study, we hence hypothesized that perceived transformational leadership of the local government in combating the COVID-19 pandemic would be positively associated with PTG among the general public in Macao (H1).

The interplay of transformational leadership with trust

Drawing on transformational leadership theory, trust in leaders may potentially serve as a moderator in the relationships between transformational leadership and various outcomes (Bass & Avolio, 1994). It has been suggested that there are pseudo-transformational leaders whose motives and ethics are questionable, and these leaders may be perceived as unreliable despite showing transformational leadership behaviors (Christie et al., 2011). In such circumstances, the positive effects of transformational leadership on outcomes, such as followers’ performance and psychological well-being, may be weakened (Goodwin et al., 2011). It is also argued that trust in leaders or organizations can be a significant mediator in the association of leadership behaviors with outcomes because such trust can be a result of transformational leadership behaviors, which in turn promote desirable behaviors or consequences (Goodwin et al., 2011). Past studies investigating how transformational leadership and trust interact with each other found mixed results. For example, some suggested that trust in leaders moderated the associations of transformational leadership with innovative work behaviors (Afsar & Masood, 2018) and safety citizenship behaviors (Conchie & Donald, 2009), while some other studies argued that trust mediated the effects of transformational leadership on job performance (Braun et al., 2013), organizational commitment (Prilianti et al., 2021), and psychological well-being (Kelloway et al., 2012). Given the inconsistency found by previous research, this study hence examined if trust is a moderator or mediator in the association between transformational leadership and PTG.

Trust in government as a potential moderator

Since public trust in government influences one's willingness to believe in and count on the actions of the government (Grimmelikhuijsen & Knies, 2017), we expect perceived trust would enhance the effect of transformational leadership because individuals are more likely to be inspired or motivated by a government they trust (Chanley et al., 2000; Levi et al., 2009), and transformational leaders lacking trust may be considered ineffective in reaching their goals or achieving their vision (Bass & Avolio, 1994). Therefore, in this study we also aimed to test the moderating effect trust in government may have on the association between governmental transformational leadership and the PTG of the general public during the pandemic. In particular, we hypothesized that higher levels of trust in local government would strengthen the positive association between transformational leadership and PTG (H2).

Trust in government as a potential mediator

Previous findings also showed that public trust is vital to the successful implementation of public policies (Chanley et al., 2000; Levi & Stoker, 2000; Levi et al., 2009), especially during a crisis (Han et al., 2020; Pak et al., 2021; Saechang et al., 2021). Specifically, trust in a government to effectively manage the challenges caused by COVID-19 improved the general well-being of citizens (Barrafrem et al., 2021). When people perceive an authority as trustworthy, they are more likely to feel physically and psychologically secure and empowered, which is beneficial to their ability to positively adjust to challenging circumstances (Edmondson & Lei, 2014). Given that transformational leadership behaviors help build followers’ trust in, and respect for, their leaders, with the latter motivating their followers to fulfill their potential and perform well (Yukl, 1989), in this study we hence assumed that trust in government during the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic would increase the likelihood of citizens developing positive changes (e.g., PTG). We further hypothesized that trust in government to deal with the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic would mediate, at least partially, the positive relationship between perceived transformational leadership of the local government and PTG (H3).

The current study

This study aimed to assess levels of PTG in the general public in Macao during the COVID-19 pandemic and to test the interplay of perceptions of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government's transformational leadership behaviors and public trust in the local government in promoting PTG. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically test the effects of perceived transformational leadership of a government and trust in government on people's PTG in the midst of a traumatic event like the COVID-19 pandemic. The conceptual models are shown in Figure 1. Specifically, we tested the following hypotheses:

Figure 1.

The conceptual models of the association between transformational leadership and posttraumatic growth.

H1: Perceived transformational leadership of the government in combating the COVID-19 pandemic will be positively correlated with PTG among the general public in Macao.

H2: Trust in government to effectively fight against the COVID-19 pandemic will moderate (strengthen) the positive association between perceived transformational leadership and PTG.

H3: Trust in government to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic will mediate, at least partially, the positive relationship between perceived transformational leadership and PTG.

Methods

Respondents and procedures

We adopted a two-stage cluster random sampling method in a telephone survey and obtained a probability sample of community-dwelling Chinese adults in Macao, China. The inclusion criteria included being a local resident, 18 years old or above, and capable of understanding and speaking Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese. In the first sampling stage, we randomly selected local households from the recent Macao residential phonebook and screened the eligible respondents. For households that had two or more eligible respondents, we followed the last-birthday rule (Gaziano, 2008), which means we invited those who most recently had their birthday to voluntarily take part in our telephone survey as part of the second-stage random sampling. All selected respondents received a briefing from trained research assistants, which included an explanation of the purpose of the study and their rights as participants. There were no monetary rewards for participating in the research. Only respondents who consented to participate took the formal survey over the phone. The ethics approval of the study was obtained from the university the corresponding author is affiliated with.

During late June and early July of 2020 we successfully collected data from a total of 1011 respondents with a cooperation rate of 80.6% according to the calculation method advised by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (2016). There were 38.8% males (95% CI [35.8%, 41.8%]) and 61.2% females (95% CI [58.2%, 64.2%]), and their ages ranged from 18 to 94 years old (M = 41.2, SD = 15.8). No respondents reported a history of COVID-19 infection, and only 12 respondents (1.2%) reported that some of their relatives or friends had an infection (in Macao or other regions).

Measures

Perceived transformational leadership

A pandemic-specific, adapted version of the Transformational Leadership Scale based on the Chinese Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X (Cheung et al., 2018) was used to assess perceptions of the Macao SAR government's transformational leadership behaviors in combating the COVID-19 epidemic. The adapted scale consists of five dimensions, which assessed respondents’ perceived transformational leadership in terms of individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, idealized influence, and attributed charisma on a 5-point Likert scale, in which 0 = never and 4 = always. Both Chinese and English versions of this pandemic-specific adapted scale used in the current study are attached in the Appendix. A higher mean score represented higher levels of perceived transformational leadership of the Macao government. In this study, the Cronbach's alpha of the scale was .865.

Trust in government

The Citizen Trust in Government Organizations Scale (CTGO scale; Grimmelikhuijsen & Knies, 2017), with pandemic-themed adaptations, was used to assess respondents’ levels of trust in the Macao SAR government during the COVID-19 epidemic. The adapted scale consists of nine items, and both the Chinese and English versions of the adapted scale are attached in the Appendix. Respondents rated their level of agreement on a 5-point Likert scale, in which 1 = completely disagree and 5 = completely agree. Higher mean scores represented higher levels of trust in the Macao government. The Cronbach's alpha for the scale was .939 in the current study.

PTG

The short form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-SF; Cann et al., 2010) was adopted to assess the levels of respondents’ PTG levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. The instruction of the PTGI-SF was adapted to “The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic may bring some changes to people. To what extent has the pandemic brought you the following changes?” The scale consists of five dimensions: namely, relating to others (2 items, sample item “ I have a greater sense of closeness with others”; Cronbach's α = .705), new possibilities (2 items, sample item “I established a new path for my life”; Cronbach's α = .656), personal strength (2 items, sample item “I discovered that I'm stronger than I thought I was”; Cronbach's α = .726), spiritual change (2 items, sample item “I have a better understanding of spiritual matters”; Cronbach's α = .554), and appreciation of life (2 items, sample item “I have a greater appreciation for the value of my own life”; Cronbach's α = .683). Participants rated their responses on a 6-point Likert scale, in which 0 = I did not experience this change, 3 = I experienced this change to a medium degree, and 5 = I experienced this change to a very great degree. Higher summated subscales (0 to 10) or total score (0 to 50) indicated a higher level of PTG as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cronbach's alpha of the total scale was .905 in this study.

Demographic variables

Respondents reported their gender, age, and educational level during the telephone survey.

Data analysis

Preliminary analyses, including descriptive statistics and correlation analyses, were conducted in SPSS 26. There were a total of 35 cases (3.5%) with missing values. When less than 5% of the data are missing, listwise deletion makes little difference when computing correlations and regression weights (Bell et al., 2009; Raymond & Roberts, 1987). In the following regression analyses, listwise deletion was then adopted to handle the missing values. As the internal reliability of the “spiritual change” PTG subscale was not high, with Cronbach's alpha lower than .60, we did not analyze it as a specific variable, but only included it when computing the overall PTG score.

To test whether there were moderating effects of trust in government on the association between perceived transformational leadership and PTG, we followed Aiken and West’s (1991) guidelines, and a series of hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. We first mean-centered the independent variable (i.e., perceived transformational leadership) and the moderating variable (i.e., trust in government) and then multiplied the two variables. Using the enter procedure, PTG was then regressed on demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, and educational level), perceived transformational leadership of the government, trust in government, and on the interaction of perceived transformational leadership and trust in government. To address the mediation hypothesis, we used Hayes’ PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) modeling macro (model 4) with 5000 bootstrapped resamples to test the significance of indirect effects of perceived transformational leadership on PTG via trust in government (i.e., the mediator in the model).

Results

Sample characteristics

The sample's demographic characteristics are shown in Table 1. Our sample was a probability sample of 1011 community-dwelling adults, with ages ranging from 18 to 94 (M = 41.2, SD = 15.8), residing in Macao, China. The majority (61.2%) of the sample was female with 79.0% having a high school education or above. About half of our respondents (50.6%) experienced changes related to growth at a medium degree or above (i.e., scoring on average at least 3 [midway] on the 6-point Likert scale across the 10 PTG items) of PTG due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarding specific areas of PTG reported by participants, a larger proportion reported experiencing a medium or higher level of change in personal strength (70.2%), in relating to others (62.3%), in new possibilities (60.2%), and in their appreciation of life (58.5%).

Table 1.

Demographic characteristics and PTG levels of the sample†.

Variables	Categories	n	%
1. Gender	Male	392	38.8
	Female	619	61.2
2. Age (years)	M = 41.2, SD = 15.8, range = 18–94
	18–29	285	29.1
	30–39	200	20.3
	40–49	201	20.5
	50–59	140	14.3
	60 or above	155	15.8
3. Educational level	No formal education	17	1.7
	Primary school	67	6.7
	Junior high school	126	12.6
	Senior high school	285	28.4
	Tertiary	508	50.6
4. PTG—Relating to others	Below medium level	381	37.7
	Medium level or above	630	62.3
5. PTG—New possibilities	Below medium level	402	39.8
	Medium level or above	609	60.2
6. PTG—Personal strength	Below medium level	301	29.8
	Medium level or above	710	70.2
7. PTG—Appreciation of life	Below medium level	420	41.5
	Medium level or above	591	58.5
8. PTG—Total	Below medium level	499	49.4
	Medium level or above	512	50.6

† N = 1011.

Note. PTG = posttraumatic growth.

Correlation analyses

Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations of the major variables are presented in Table 2. Among the variables in the study, gender was significant only with perceived transformational leadership of the government (r = .08, p = .016). Age was negatively correlated with educational level (r = −.60, p < .001) and growth in new possibilities (r = −.10, p = .002) and positively correlated with perceived transformational leadership (r = .22, p < .001) and trust in government (r = .21, p < .001). Educational level was positively correlated with growth in new possibilities (r = .10, p = .001) and negatively correlated to perceived transformational leadership (r = −.16, p < .001) and trust in government (r = −.18, p < .001), respectively.

Table 2.

Descriptive statistics and correlations of all the variables†.

Variables	Mean	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1. Gender	–	–	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2. Age	41.16	15.82	.04	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
3. Educational level	4.20	1.01	−.01	−.60***	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
4. Transformational leadership	3.17	0.66	.08*	.22***	−.16***	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
5. Trust in government	4.16	0.63	.04	.21***	−.18***	.60**	1	–	–	–	–	–
6. PTG—Relating to others	5.84	2.42	.04	.05	−.01	.16***	.12***	1	–	–	–	–
7. PTG—New possibilities	5.83	2.40	−.02	−.10**	.10***	.15***	.08*	.64***	1	–	–	–
8. PTG—Personal strength	6.24	2.28	.02	.02	.04	.08**	.05	.66***	.67***	1	–	–
9. PTG—Appreciation of life	5.81	2.55	.00	−.05	.06	.18***	.08*	.62***	.73***	.58***	1	–
10. PTG—Total	28.55	10.20	.02	−.01	.04	.19***	.10***	.83***	.88***	.83***	.84***	1

† N = 1011.

Note: Gender: 0 = male, 1 = female; PTG = posttraumatic growth. * p < .05; **p < .01; *** p < .001.

As hypothesized, perceived transformational leadership of the government was significantly and positively correlated with not only overall PTG (r = .19, p < .001) but also all the individual dimensions of PTG (i.e., relating to others, r = .16, p < .001; new possibilities, r = .15, p < .001; personal strength, r = .08, p = .008; appreciation of life, r = .18, p < .001). Trust in government was significantly and positively correlated with the overall PTG (r = .10, p = .001), as well as three of its subscales (i.e., relating to others, r = .12, p < .001, new possibilities, r = .08, p = .013, and appreciation of life, r = .08, p = .010).

Multiple regression analyses

To test the hypothesized main effects of perceived transformational leadership, as well as the moderating effects of trust in government on the association between transformational leadership and PTG, we conducted a series of hierarchical regression analysis, with the dependent variable consisting of the four constructs of PTG and the overall PTG, respectively. After controlling for the effects of gender, age, and educational level in Step 1, perceived transformational leadership and trust in government were entered into the model in Step 2 and Step 3, respectively. In Step 4, the interaction of perceived transformational leadership and trust in government was entered into the model. The results of the regression analyses are presented in Table 3, which shows a significant positive effect of transformational leadership on four constructs of PTG: namely, relating to others (β = .157, p < .001), new possibilities (β = .183, p < .001), growth in personal strength (β = .079, p = .016), and appreciation of life (β = .207, p <.001), as well as overall PTG (β = .194, p < .001), which supports H1. However, the interaction between perceived transformational leadership and trust in government, which was hypothesized to strengthen the relationships between perceived transformational leadership and the four PTG dimensions, as well as overall PTG, was not found (Δ R² ≤ .001, β = −.031 to .110, p = .250 to .707); therefore H2 was not supported in this study.

Table 3.

Results of the hierarchical regression analyses with posttraumatic growth as the dependent variable†.

	DV = Relating to others			DV = New possibilities			DV = Personal strength			DV = Appreciation of life			DV = PTG—Total
	Δ R²	Δ F	β	Δ R²	Δ F	β	Δ R²	Δ F	β	Δ R²	Δ F	β	Δ R²	Δ F	β
Step 1
Gender			.028			−.024			.016			−.011			.015
Age			.078			−.052			.071			−.014			.027
Educational level			.041			.076^#			.081			.051			.057
R²	.005	1.58		.014	4.64**		.005	1.60		.004	1.22		.002	0.76
Step 2
TL	.023	23.43***	.157***	.032	32.28***	.183***	.006	5.82*	.079*	.041	41.41***	.207***	.036	35.95***	.194***
Step 3
TG	.001	0.55	.029	.000	0.14	.015	.000	0.09	−.012	.000	0.17	−.017	.000	0.03	.007
Step 4
TL × TG	.000	0.21	.015	.000	0.14	.012	.001	0.89	−.031	.001	0.69	.027	.000	0.23	.110
Total R²	.029			.046			.011			.045			.038

† N = 1011.

Note: DV = dependent variable; PTG = posttraumatic growth; TL = perceived transformational leadership; TG = trust in government.

#p = .056; * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001.

To test the hypothesized mediating effects of trust in government on the association between perceived transformational leadership and PTG, we utilized the Hayes’ PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) modeling software (model 4) with 5000 bootstrapped resamples, 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and Results (see Table 4) showed that trust in government exerted no significant influence on any of the four PTG constructs or on overall PTG while controlling for perceived transformational leadership and demographic variables (b [unstandardized] = −0.045 to 0.116, p = .460 to .866). Besides, the indirect effects of transformational leadership on PTG (total PTG and four individual PTG constructs) through trust in government were all nonsignificant: indirect effect on relating to others (b = 0.064, 95% BootCIs [−0.112, 0.245]; indirect effect on new possibilities: b = 0.032, 95% BootCIs [−0.144, 0.209]; indirect effect on personal strength: b = −0.025, 95% BootCIs [−0.180, 0.136]; indirect effect on appreciation of life: b = −0.037, 95% BootCIs [−0.232, 0.152]; indirect effect on overall PTG: b = 0.061, 95% BootCIs [−0.678, 0.795]; see Table 4). Thus, H3, which stated that trust in government to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic would mediate, at least partially, the positive relationship between perceived transformational leadership and PTG, was not supported.

Table 4.

Coefficients [95% CI] of mediation measuring association between transformational leadership and posttraumatic growth†.

	DV = TG	DV = Relating to others	DV = New possibilities	DV = Personal strength	DV = Appreciation of life	DV = PTG—Total
Direct effects
TL	0.549*** [0.501, 0.597]	0.518*** [0.228, 0.808]	0.638*** [0.353, 0.923]	0.300* [0.024, 0.576]	0.843*** [0.541, 1.145]	2.959*** [1.743, 4.175]
TG		0.116 [−0.192, 0.423]	0.058 [−0.243, 0.360]	−0.045 [−0.337, 0.248]	−0.068 [−0.388, 0.252]	0.111 [−1.178, 1.400]
Indirect effects
TL through TG		0.064 [−0.112, 0.245]	0.032 [−0.144, 0.209]	−0.025 [−0.180, 0.136]	−0.037 [−0.232, 0.152]	0.061 [−0.678, 0.795]
Covariates
Gender	0.002 [−0.061, 0.066]	0.085 [−0.224, 0.395]	−0.179 [−0.483, 0.125]	0.038 [−0.247, 0.342]	−0.131 [−0.453, 0.192]	0.041 [−1.256, 1.339]
Age	0.002 [0.000, 0.005]	0.007 [−0.005, 0.020]	−0.013* [−0.025, −0.001]	0.008 [−0.003, 0.020]	−0.008 [−0.021, 0.005]	−0.005 [−0.056, 0.046]
Educational level	−0.032 [−0.070, 0.007]	0.125 [−0.064, 0.313]	0.210* [ 0.025, 0.396]	0.193* [0.014, 0.373]	0.157 [−0.040, 0.354]	0.679 [−0.095, 1.488]

† N = 1011.

Note: Values represent unstandardized regression coefficients with 95% confidence intervals. DV = Dependent variable; PTG = Posttraumatic growth; TL = Perceived transformational leadership; TG = Trust in government. TG is the mediator in the association between TL and PTG.

* p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001.

Discussion

Our study was the first that examined the public's perceived transformational leadership of, and trust in, local government and its relationship with PTG. We also took a glimpse at the extent to which local citizens were experiencing positive adjustment to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our data showed that about half of the respondents (50.6%) experienced at least a medium level of general PTG during the epidemic. In particular, more than two-thirds (70.2%) of respondents grew in personal strength, indicating that this unprecedented health crisis was able to stimulate individuals’ willpower and strength in adversity. Given that nearly half of the respondents also reported experiencing a greater capacity to relating to others, new possibilities, and appreciation of life, we can conclude that positive changes related to the pandemic occurred in multiple aspects of people's lives, including interpersonal relations and intrapersonal cognitive thinking about life's meaning. By showing that people can grow during challenging circumstances, such as those brought about by the pandemic, these findings provide a more holistic view of the profound influences of the pandemic on individuals and their lives.

With respect to the influence of demographic variables on PTG, we discovered that men and women tended to manifest similar levels of PTG in general and in all four domains of PTG, which is consistent with Luu’s (2022) finding that gender was not a significant correlate of PTG among workers in Vietnam. In contrast, age and education level were found to have significant associations with only growth in new possibilities, indicating that as one grows older one experiences less growth, and with more education greater growth, in this area. Previous research findings have shown that younger or relatively highly educated respondents reported higher levels of growth in new possibilities, which is reasonable, as younger individuals may believe they have more opportunities, as they are still young (Richards-Schuster & Plachta Elliott, 2019). Moreover, well-educated individuals may be more open to new possibilities in life. However, Kalaitzaki (2021) found that high educational levels were associated with lower levels of growth in new possibilities. There may be regional/cultural differences in the influence of demographics on individuals’ adjustment to crisis and further research may be needed to understand this inconsistency.

Our findings supported H1, which stipulated that perceived transformational leadership of the government would be associated with higher levels of all dimensions of PTG. Our data offer support for the potential facilitating effect of transformational leadership behaviors of the government on individuals’ positive adjustment to the pandemic and even interpersonal growth via gaining spiritual strength, faith, and new perspectives on life's meaning, as well as experiencing openness to new opportunities that may unfold from the great challenge. Whereas previous research investigating the correlates of PTG mainly focused on personal factors, such as self-controllability (Dekel et al., 2011) and trait resilience (Duan et al., 2015), the present study further suggested that perceived transformational leadership of the government, a relative distal but commonly shared factor, may have potential value in promoting individuals’ PTG in a crisis, which broadened the road to discovering potential antecedents of PTG.

However, our investigation included some unexpected findings, such as the lack of evidence for the moderating role of trust in government on the association between transformational leadership and PTG, a finding that indicated our H2 was not supported by our data. This finding suggests that the influence of transformational leadership behaviors of the government on the public's PTG during the crisis was not affected by whether or not the general public trusted the government. We also found that public trust in local government did not have any significant effect on any type of PTG associated with the COVID-19 pandemic after controlling for the effects of transformational leadership, and the mediating effect of H3 was hence not supported either. Although trust in government was suggested to affect peoples’ compliance with public health policies during the pandemic (Bargain & Aminjonov, 2020), there are scarce studies showing that trust in the government authority may be counterproductive (Granados Samayoa et al., 2021). Given that our findings did not support the positive effects of trust in government, we speculate that when facing a national and global health crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic presented, it is the action and behavior of the government, rather than how much people trust their government, that really matters, especially in inspiring and promoting peoples’ positive adjustment to the crisis. Future research may test other possible mechanisms of how perceived transformational leadership of a government is associated with individuals’ PTG (e.g., shared vision or perceived social support as mediators).

Limitations

Three major limitations of this study should be noted. First, a cross-sectional research design was adopted in the current study, and thus no causal inference can be made based on the results (Woodside, 2011). Future research may adopt a longitudinal research design and assess perceived transformational leadership of the government, trust in government, and PTG at baseline and assess the latter two dependent variables later to examine the chronological effects of perceived transformational leadership of the government on both trust in government and PTG associated with a public traumatic event. Second, although the reliability of the total PTG scale was satisfactory, with a Cronbach's alpha of .905, the reliabilities of PTG subscales were not high (e.g., the Cronbach's alpha of spiritual change subscale was less than .60 in this study). As we adopted the short form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, one possible explanation is that each subscale has only two items, and a brief scale may be more likely to have low reliability (Davidson & Keating, 2002). Future research may consider using the original Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996) to assess PTG levels. Third, the scale adopted to measure Macao residents’ trust in the local government was a pandemic-adapted version of the CTGO scale (Grimmelikhuijsen & Knies, 2017), in which the meaning of some items may be distorted and/or may not be specific enough (e.g., “In the face of the epidemic, the Macao SAR government is sincere and genuine”). The lack of specificity of the items may lead to inaccurate responses of the participants (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). In addition, previous research showed that individuals’ self-reported evaluations of political trust may suffer from social desirability bias (Näher & Krumpal, 2012; Zhou et al., 2020), although we have tried to minimize its impact by assuring anonymity of the participants.

Implications and conclusion

Despite the aforementioned limitations, the present study has notable theoretical and practical implications. To begin with, by applying the transformational leadership notion to the government–public relationship, the current study was the first that tested the association between perceived transformational leadership of the local government and PTG related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that transformational leadership on the governmental level exhibited a beneficial effect on individuals’ PTG, regardless of its dimensions, associated with their pandemic experience. The finding that those who perceived higher levels of transformational leadership behaviors from the local government during the pandemic tended to report higher levels of PTG not only expanded the transformational leadership theory from the employer–employee level to government–general public level, but also lends extra empirical support to the crucial role of local government in leading campaigns against public crisis such as the ongoing pandemic. Besides, by testing both the moderating and mediating effects of trust in government in the association between transformational leadership and citizens’ PTG during the COVID-19 pandemic, our findings showed that the association between transformational leadership and PTG was independent of whether one had trust in one's local government, which, on the one hand, enriched the literature discussing the interplay of transformational leadership with trust from a governmental perspective, and on the other hand, indicated the cost-effectiveness of governments utilizing transformational leadership to inspire positive changes among their citizens amidst the normalization and resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regarding practical implications, the current study provided empirical evidence for positive changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of the respondents in a probability community-dwelling Chinese sample reported PTG, which shows the potential value of applying positive psychology strategies to cultivate personal strengths and promote favorable changes among the general public. More importantly, we provided the first piece of empirical evidence that underscores the potential value of governments’ transformational leadership in promoting people's PTG in the face of a major crisis like COVID-19. Given that some countries have declared the end of the pandemic, and people all over the world are starting to adjust to a back-to-normal life (Adam & Gorišek, 2022), our finding highlighting the importance of governmental actions in influencing people's positive changes in the face of major public crises may further provide reference for governments in deciding the most appropriate policies for crisis management. More transformational leadership behaviors of the government, such as encouraging citizens to seek different perspectives when solving problems and attending to citizens’ personal needs, are called for in order to bring about more positivity from individuals and ensure social vitality and resilience in the midst of this long-term public health battle, as well as amidst future public crises.

Supplemental Material

sj-docx-1-pac-10.1177_18344909221146254 - Supplemental material for Growing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: The interplay among transformational leadership in government, public trust, and posttraumatic growth

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-pac-10.1177_18344909221146254 for Growing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: The interplay among transformational leadership in government, public trust, and posttraumatic growth by Hong Mian Yang, Kwok Kit Tong, Juliet Honglei Chen, Eilo Wing-yat Yu and Anise M. S. Wu in Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology

Footnotes

Author contributions

HMY was responsible for research conception and design, and conducted the literature review, data analysis, finding interpretation, and manuscript writing. KKT was responsible for research conception, finding interpretation, and manuscript writing. JHC was involved in data collection, research conception, and manuscript writing. EWY was responsible for grant application and manuscript preparation. AMSW was responsible for coordination and was involved in research design and finding interpretation. All authors approved the final manuscript.

Data availability

Databases for the current manuscript are available at the Open Science Framework (OSF; ).

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethics approval

This study has obtained ethics approval from the research ethics committee of the Department of Psychology at the University of Macau.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research was supported by the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT), Macao (grant number: 0022/2020/A).

ORCID iD

Kwok Kit Tong

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

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