Meaning in Life and Coping With Everyday Stressors

Ward, Sarah; Womick, Jake; Titova, Liudmila; King, Laura A.

doi:10.1177/01461672211068910

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…A second protective factor that has been consistently linked with psychological resilience and shows strong connections to media entertainment is the presence of meaning in life (Pangallo et al, 2015). Higher levels of meaning in life have been identified as a central protective factor and linked to mental health and positive adjustment to various forms of adversity or traumatic events (Park, 2017;Ward et al, 2022). Furthermore, meaning making, that is, restoring meaning after trauma and critical life events, is an important mechanism that strengthens resilience (Park, 2017), for example through the acceptance of change or the reappraisal of the situation as an opportunity for growth or a source of wisdom (Folkman and Moskowitz, 2007).…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The longitudinal influence of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment preferences on psychological resilience and wellbeing

Reinecke

Kreling

2022

Front. Commun.

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Narratives and media entertainment are central sources of meaningful experiences in everyday life and provide role models and learning opportunities for coping with adversity and life challenges. Though a growing body of research demonstrates beneficial short-term effects of entertainment use on recovery and stress coping, a test of longitudinal effects on positive adaptation to adversity is largely missing. The present study aims at providing a salutogenic perspective on the mental health effects of entertainment use by addressing the longitudinal relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment preferences (i.e., the individual entertainment diet) and three indicators of psychological resilience: hope, meaning in life, and trait resilience. Pre-registered hypotheses and research questions were tested based on data from a longitudinal panel study with two waves over a 6-month time period and N = 2,561 participants from Germany. The findings demonstrate that only meaning in life at T2 was significantly albeit weakly predicted by eudaimonic entertainment preferences at T1, providing limited support for prospective effects of entertainment use on resilience. In contrast, the data demonstrate selective exposure effects of hope and trait resilience at T1 on eudaimonic and hedonic entertainment preferences at T2. All three resilience indicators were significant predictors of mental health and psychological wellbeing. We discuss implications of our findings for future research on salutary mental health effects of narratives and media entertainment.

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Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The longitudinal influence of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment preferences on psychological resilience and wellbeing

Reinecke

Kreling

2022

Front. Commun.

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“…In experimental studies, researchers have observed condition differences in meaning in life ratings-even on broad trait measures of meaning in life-following an array of laboratory manipulations inducing qualities including social belonging (Lambert et al, 2013), nostalgia (Sedikides et al, 2018), or repeating patterns (Heintzelman et al, 2013). Furthermore, across daily diary studies including once daily meaning in life measures, there is consistent and substantial within-person variance in meaning in life, for example, daily diary studies have produced the following within-person variance estimates: 54% (Machell et al, 2015a), 44% (Ward et al, 2022), and31% (Jayawickreme et al, 2021).…”

Section: Capturing Variations In Meaning In Life Within Personmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Daily diary methods have been used more frequently than the ESM in meaning in life research to further understand whose lives are meaningful (Dolan et al, 2017), the stability of meaning in life across time (Steger & Kashdan, 2013), and the relation between daily search for meaning & presence of meaning in life (Morse et al, 2021;Newman & Nezlek, 2019). Daily diary methods have demonstrated relationships between daily reports of meaning in life and daily reports of psychological constructs including psychological well-being (Hadden & Smith, 2019), curiosity (Kashdan & Steger, 2007), and gratitude (Nezlek et al, 2017), behaviors including the use of coping strategies (Ward et al, 2022), and experiences such as daily social and achievement events (Machell et al, 2015b).…”

Section: Building On Daily Diary Studies Of Meaning In Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Leveraging the Experience Sampling Method to Study Meaning in Everyday Life

Heintzelman¹,

Mohideen²

2022

Atlantis Highlights in Social Sciences, Education and Humanities

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The science of meaning in life, dominated by retrospective trait assessments, has critically expanded our understanding of this important construct, but has limitations. The trait measurement approach does not allow a nuanced examination of feelings of meaning in life as they are experienced in everyday life, unfiltered by cognitive meaning making processes. In this chapter, we call for a broad integration of experience sampling methods (ESM) into the science of meaning in life to afford a better understanding of the ebbs and flows of this experience within person across situations. Research has identified within person variability in online feelings of meaning in life, highlighting the necessity of this approach. Initial integrations of the ESM into meaning in life research have provided a number of valuable contributions to our understanding of this construct, which we review in this chapter. Finally, we discuss distinctions between state and trait meaningfulness and the generative potential of integrating the ESM into the study of meaning in life.

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“…Existentialism theory suggests that the presence of meaning is a protective factor against depression (Mascaro & Rosen, 2008), which is consistent with the cognitive theory of depression (Beck, 1987). Higher levels of presence of meaning lead individuals to live purpose‐filled lives and ensure they have more resources to cope with stressful events (Sedikides et al, 2018; Ward et al, 2023); therefore, they are at a lower risk of depression than those with lower levels of presence of meaning (Disabato et al, 2017). Chen et al (2021) found that presence of meaning mediates the relationship between the search for meaning and depression; that is, the process by which people search for meaning facilitates higher levels of the presence of meaning, which in turn reduces depression.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future self‐continuity and depression among college students: The role of presence of meaning and perceived social support

Xue

Yun

Fan

et al. 2023

Journal of Adolescence

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IntroductionFuture self‐continuity has been shown to have a protective effect against depression. This study aims to investigate the longitudinal relationship between future self‐continuity and depression among college students, and to explore the mediating role of the presence of meaning and the moderating role of perceived social support.MethodsWe conducted two studies in China in 2022 and 2023. Study 1 was a longitudinal cross‐lagged study that examined the relationship between future self‐continuity and depression among 173 participants (49.13% females, Mage = 19.39, SD = 1.63). Study 2 was a cross‐sectional study that explored the mediating role of the presence of meaning and the moderating role of perceived social support among 426 participants (48.59% females, Mage = 19.30, SD = 1.60).ResultsStudy 1 showed that future self‐continuity (T1) could significantly predict depression (T2), but depression (T1) could not predict future self‐continuity (T2). Study 2 showed that after controlling for gender, the presence of meaning mediated the relationship between future self‐continuity and depression, whereas perceived social support moderated the first half of the mediated model's pathway and the direct pathway.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that enhancing the future self‐continuity of college students and increasing the level of presence of meaning are effective measures for alleviating depression. Meanwhile, educators and families are called upon to provide more social support to college students.

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Meaning in Life and Coping With Everyday Stressors

Cited by 24 publications

References 49 publications

The longitudinal influence of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment preferences on psychological resilience and wellbeing

The longitudinal influence of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment preferences on psychological resilience and wellbeing

Leveraging the Experience Sampling Method to Study Meaning in Everyday Life

Future self‐continuity and depression among college students: The role of presence of meaning and perceived social support

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