Adolescent turning points: The association between meaning-making and psychological well-being.

Abstract

Research findings indicate that the ability to create meaning out of turning points (i.e., significant life experiences) is related to psychological well-being. It is not clear, however, whether individuals who report meaning-making and higher well-being are better adjusted prior to the experience of their turning point event. This study examined whether meaning-making and timing of turning points would be associated with higher scores on well-being. Participants were 418 Grade 12 students (209 of whom reported having had a turning point event and a matched group of 209 adolescents who did not report having had a turning point event). This subset of participants was taken from a larger longitudinal study of 803 (52% female) Grade 12 Canadian students (M age = 17 years). All participants completed well-being measures 3 years prior, when they were in Grade 9. Meaning-making was significantly associated with higher psychological well-being, controlling for Grade 9 scores on well-being. Importantly, adolescents who reported meaning-making in Grade 12 did not differ on well-being prior to the experience of their turning point event, when they were in Grade 9, from adolescents who did not report meaning-making. These findings highlight the importance of examining meaning-making in relation to positive adjustment among adolescents reporting a significant life-changing event. Limitations regarding the use of survey measures and the generalizability of the results to a culturally diverse group of adolescents are discussed.

Getting a Life Takes Time: The Development of the Life Story in Adolescence, Its Precursors and Consequences

“…Interpreting and integrating disruptive life events is potentially beneficial for wellbeing [Pals, 2006;Park, 2010]. More specifically, among 12th-graders who reported having experienced a turning point, those who included learning a lesson or an insight in their turning point narrative reported higher well-being than those whose narratives did not include meaning making, even after controlling for their earlier well-being [Tavernier & Willoughby, 2012]. In the lifespan sample of the Frankfurt longitudinal study MainLife, having experienced changes in life circumstances in the past four years led to a lower sense of self-continuity.…”

Wisdom Gained? Assessing Relationships Between Adversity, Personality and Well-Being Among a Late Adolescent Sample

“…These meaningmaking processes have also been found to be important in fostering well-being across time. For example, Tavernier & Willoughby (2012) found that although adolescents' well-being prior to a stressful event was unrelated to post-stress meaning-making, this meaning-making was related to increases in well-being over time. It is therefore not an individual's prior level of adjustment that seems to be important, but individual differences in specific personality traits that may play an important role in facilitating the meaning making process.…”

Interviewees’ Psychological Well-being in Investigative Interviews: a Therapeutic Jurisprudential Approach

“…This approach may facilitate an appraisal-centred approach to stress (Lazarus, 1993) as well as meaning-making attempts (Park, 2010;Park & Folkman, 1997), all of which may ultimately facilitate interviewees' perception of meaningfulness. The latter is an important aspect of PWB (Auhagen, 2000;Debats, 1999;Debats et al, 1995;Frankl, 1959Frankl, / 1992Maddi, 1967;Park & Gutierrez, 2013;Skaggs & Barron, 2006;Tavernier & Willoughby, 2012;Zika & Chamberlain, 1992). Promoting interviewees' PWB in an investigative interview context is in line with the ideology of TJ (Slobogin, 1995;Stolle et al, 2000;Wexler, 1996a).…”

“…Second, and related to interviewees' narration, are opportunities for the interviewees to reappraise the significance of the experienced events, a strategy that is in line with meaning-making attempts and meaning made (Park, 2010;Park & Folkman, 1997). Several studies (Pennebaker et al, 1988;Petrie et al, 1998;Richards et al, 2000) have suggested a relation between individuals' disclosure of traumatic events and reduced stress, and that the formation of a narrative is critical and a predictor of good mental health (Pennebaker & Seagal, 1999), which, in turn, is associated with PWB through the meaning-making process (Park & Gutierrez, 2013;Tavernier & Willoughby, 2012). Moreover, with the above in mind, a previous study by Holmberg and Madsen (2014) found that interviewees subjected to a non-rapport condition, in contrast to those interviewed with a humanitarian rapport style, reported less information altogether, particularly less peripheral information.…”

“…In a systematic review of drawing meaning from stressful life events, Park (2010) found empirical support for the notion that most people subjected to a highly stressful event try to make the event meaningful. Tavernier and Willoughby (2012) found that meaning-making was significantly associated with PWB, and Park and Gutierrez (2013) found that both global and situational meaning were independently related to PWB outcomes, including stress, anxiety and depression. The STAI is a widely used instrument for the assessment of anxiety (Gr€ os, Antony, Simms, & McCabe, 2007;Spielberger, 1989).…”