Słowa kluczowe
sens w życiu
wyłaniająca się dorosłość
zdrowie psychiczne
Jak cytować
Abstrakt
Transition from adolescence to adulthood and the challenges it entails are often accompanied by a feeling of anxiety and confusion. As research has shown, emerging adults may be particularly vulnerable to various mental disorders. Meaning in life is one of the protective factors that is of great importance both for the mental health and well-being of an individual. The issue of the sense of meaning in life is particularly important in emerging adulthood, as searching for meaning in life may be treated as one of the developmental tasks of this period. The aim of the article is both to review the literature on meaning in life, with particular emphasis on its two dimensions: presence of and search for, and to present the preliminary results of research. The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between the sense of meaning in life, perceived stress and mental health among emerging adults in Poland. 120 emerging adults (between 18 and 29 years of age) participated in the study. Participants completed three questionnaires: the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). There was a negative relationship between presence of meaning in life and somatic and depressive symptoms and perceived stress. Among emerging adults, the search for meaning in life was significantly higher than the presence of meaning. The role of the search for meaning in the period of emerging adulthood as well as further research directions are discussed.
Bibliografia
Abu-Raiya, H., Sasson, T., Russo-Netzer, P. (2021). Presence of meaning, search for meaning, religiousness, satisfaction with life and depressive symptoms among a diverse Israeli sample, International Journal of Psychology, 56 (2), 276-285.
Arnett, J.J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties, American Psychologist, 55 (5), 469–480.
Arnett, J.J. (2014). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. Second Edition, New York: Oxford University Press.
Arnett, J.J. (2018). Conceptual foundations of emerging adulthood, (in:) J.M. Murray, J.J. Arnett (eds.), Emerging adulthood and higher education, 11-24, New York: Routledge.
Arnett, J.J., Schwab, J. (2012). The Clark University poll of emerging adults: thriving, struggling, and hopeful, from: https://www2.clarku.edu/clark-poll-emerging-adults/pdfs/clark-university-poll-emerging-adults-findings.pdf, (access: 07.07.2021).
Arnett, J.J., Žukauskienė, R., Sugimura, K. (2014). The new life stage of emerging adulthood at ages 18–29 years: Implications for mental health, The Lancet Psychiatry, 1 (7), 569- 576.
Baumeister, R.F. (1991). Meanings of life, New York: Guilford.
Baumeister, R.F., Leary, M.R. (1995). The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation, Psychological Bulletin, 117 (3), 497-529.
Blanco, C., Okuda, M., Wright, C., Hasin, D.S., Grant, B.F., Liu, S.-M., Olfson, M. (2008). Mental health of college students and their non-college-attending peers: results from the National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions, Archives of General Psychiatry, 65, 1429-1437.
Brassai, L., Piko, B.F., Steger, M.F. (2011). Meaning in life: Is it a protective factor for adolescents’ psychological health? International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 18 (1), 44–51.
Cohen, S., Kamarch, T., Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385 – 396.
Cohen, K., Cairns, D. (2012). Is searching for meaning in life associated with reduced subjective well-being? Confirmation and possible moderators, Journal of Happiness Studies, 13 (2), 313-331.
Debats, D.L., Drost, J., Hansen, P. (1995). Experiences of meaning in life – A combined qualitative and quantitative approach. British Journal of Psychology, 86, 359–375.
Dezutter, J., Waterman, A.S., Schwartz, S.J., Luyckx, K., Beyers, W., Meca, A., Kim S.Y., Krauss Whitbourne, S., Zamboanga, B.L., Lee, R.M., Hardy, S.A., Forthun, L.F., Ritchie, R.A., Weisskirch, R.S., Brown, E.J., Caraway, S.J. (2014). Meaning in life in emerging adulthood: A person-oriented approach, Journal of Personality, 82 (1), 57-68.
Disabato, D.J., Kashdan, T.B., Short, J.L., Jarden, A. (2017). What predicts positive life events that influence the course of depression? A longitudinal examination of gratitude and meaning in life, Cognitive Therapy and Research, 41 (3), 444-458.
Diener, E. (2009). The science of well-being, Social Indicators Research Series, 37, 11–58. Erikson, E.H. (1950). Childhood and society, New York: Norton.
Fabry, J.B. (1980). The pursuit of meaning, New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Frankl, V.E. (1963). Man’s search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy, New York: Washington Square Press.
Frankl, V.E. (1969). The will to meaning, New York, NY: New American Library.
Garcıa-Alandete, J. (2015). Does meaning in life predict psychological well-being, European Journal of Counselling Psychology, 3 (2), 89-98.
García-Alandete, J., Martínez, E.R., Sellés Nohales, P., Soucase Lozano, B. (2018). Meaning in life and psychological weil-being in spanish emerging adults, Acta colombiana de Psicología, 21 (1), 196-216.
George, L.S., Park, C.L. (2014). Existential mattering: Bringing attention to a neglected but central aspect of meaning? (in:) A. Batthyany, P. Russo-Netzer (eds.), Meaning in positive and existential psychology, 39–51, New York, NY: Springer.
Goldberg, D.P. (1978). Manual of the General Health Questionnaire, NFER-Nelson, Windsor, UK.
Halama, P., Bakosova, K. (2009). Meaning in life as a moderator of the relationship between perceived stress and coping, Studia Psychologica, 51 (2/3), 143–148.
Havighurst, R.J. (1948). Developmental tasks and education, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hedayati, M.M., Khazaei, M.M. (2014). An investigation of the relationship between depression, meaning in life and adult hope, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 114, 598-601.
Heine, S.J., Proulx, T., Vohs, K.D. (2006). The meaning maintenance model: On the coherence of social motivations, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10 (2), 88-110.
Heintzelman, S.J., King, L.A. (2014a). Life is pretty meaningful, American Psychologist, 69, 561–574.
Heintzelman, S.J., King, L.A. (2014b). (The feeling of) Meaning-as-information, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18, 153–167.
Hicks, J.A., King, L.A. (2007). Meaning in life and seeing the big picture: Positive affect and global focus, Cognition and Emotion, 27, 1577-1584.
Hicks, J.A., Schlegel, R.J., King, L.A. (2010). Social threats, happiness, and the dynamics of meaning in life judgments, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 1305- 1317.
Hooker, S.A., Masters, K.S., Park, C.L. (2018). A meaningful life is a healthy life: A conceptual model linking meaning and meaning salience to health, Review of General Psychology, 22 (1), 11-24.
Ishikawa, H., Tachimori, H., Takeshima, T., Umeda, M., Miyamoto, K., Shimoda, H., Baba, T., Kawakami, N. (2018). Prevalence, treatment, and the correlates of common mental disorders in the mid 2010’ s in Japan: the results of the world mental health Japan 2nd survey, Journal of Affective Disorders, 241, 554-562.
Jost, J.T., Banaji, M.R., Nosek, B.A. (2004). A decade of system justification theory: Accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo, Political Psychology, 25 (6), 881-919.
Juczyński, Z., Ogińska-Bulik, N. (2009). Narzędzia pomiaru stresu i radzenia sobie ze stresem, Warszawa: Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych.
Kay, A.C., Gaucher, D., Napier, J.L., Callan, M.J., Laurin, K. (2008). God and the government: Testing a compensatory control mechanism for the support of external systems, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95 (1), 18–35.
Kessler, R.C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K.R., Walters, E.E. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 593-602.
Kessler, R.C., Birnbaum, H., Demler, O., et al. (2005) The prevalence and correlates of nonaffective psychosis in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), Biol. Psychiatry, 58, 668–76.
King, L.A., Heintzelman, S.J., & Ward, S.J. (2016). Beyond the search for meaning: A contemporary science of the experience of meaning in life, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25 (4), 211-216.
Klinger, E. (1998). The search for meaning in evolutionary perspective and its clinical implications. (in:) P.T.P. Wong, P.S. Fry (eds.), The human quest for meaning: A handbook of psychological research and clinical application, 27–50, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Kossakowska, M., Kwiatek, P., Stefaniak, T. (2013). Sens w życiu. Polska wersja kwestionariusza MQL, Psychologia Jakości Życia, 12 (2), 111 – 131.
Krok, D. (2011). Poczucie sensu życia a dobrostan psychiczny [Meaning in life and well- being], Psychologia Jakości Życia, 10 (2), 95–115.
Krok, D. (2018). When is meaning in life most beneficial to young people? Styles of meaning in life and well-being among late adolescents, Journal of Adult Development, 25 (2), 96- 106.
Lanz, M., Tagliabue, S. (2007). Do I really need someone to become adult? Romantic relationships in emerging adulthood, Journal of Adolescent Research, 22, 531–549.
Lapsley, D., Hardy, S. A. (2017). Identity formation and moral development in emerging adulthood, (in:) L.M. Padilla-Walker, L.J. Nelson (eds.) Flourishing in emerging adulthood: Positive development during the third decade of life, 14-39, New York: Oxford University Press.
Laursen, B., Hoff, E. (2006). Person-centered and variable-centered approaches to longitudinal data, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52 (3), 377-389.
Leontiev, D.A. (2005). Three facets of meaning, Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 43, 45–72.
Li, J.B., Dou, K., Liang, Y. (2021). The relationship between presence of meaning, search for meaning, and subjective well-being: A three-level meta-analysis based on the meaning in life questionnaire, Journal of Happiness Studies, 22 (1), 467-489.
Li, P.J., Wong, Y.J., Chao, R.C.L. (2019). Happiness and meaning in life: Unique, differential, and indirect associations with mental health, Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 32 (3- 4), 396-414.
Maddi, S.R. (1970). The search for meaning, (in:) M. Page (ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 137–186, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Makowska, Z., Merecz, D (2001). Ocena zdrowia psychicznego na podstawie badań kwestionariuszami Davida Goldberga. Podręcznik dla użytkowników kwestionariuszy GHQ12 i GHQ28, Łódź: Instytut Medycyny Pracy im prof. J. Nofera.
Martela, F., Steger, M. F. (2016). The three meanings of meaning in life: Distinguishing coherence, purpose, and significance, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11 (5), 531-545.
Mayseless, O., Keren, E. (2014). Finding a meaningful life as a developmental task in emerging adulthood: The domains of love and work across cultures, Emerging Adulthood, 2 (1), 63-73.
McKnight, P.E., Kashdan, T.B. (2009). Purpose in life as a system that creates and sustains health and well-being: An integrative, testable theory, Review of General Psychology, 13, 242–251.
Park, J., Baumeister, R.F. (2017). Meaning in life and adjustment to daily stressors, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12 (4), 333-341.
Park, C. L. (2010). Making sense of the meaning literature: An integrative review of meaning making and its effects on adjustment to stressful life events, Psychological Bulletin, 136, 257–301.
Park, C.L. (2013). The meaning making model: A framework for understanding meaning, spirituality, and stress-related growth in health psychology, European Health Psychologist, 15 (2), 40-47.
Park, C.L., Folkman, S. (1997). Meaning in the context of stress and coping Review of General Psychology, 1, 115-144.
Park, C.L., Folkman, S., Bostrom, A. (2001). Appraisals of controllability and coping in caregivers and HIV+ men: Testing the goodness-of-fit hypothesis, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69, 481-488.
Park, N., Park, M., & Peterson, C. (2010). When is the search for meaning related to life satisfaction? Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 2, 1–13.
Park, C.L., Blake, E.C. (2020). Resilience and recovery following disasters: The meaning making model, (in:) S.E. Schulenberg (ed.), Positive Psychological Approaches to Disaster, 9-25, Cham: Springer.
Proulx, T., Inzlicht, M. (2012). The five “A” s of meaning maintenance: Finding meaning in the theories of sense-making, Psychological Inquiry, 23 (4), 317-335.
Reker, G.T. (2000). Theoretical perspective, dimensions, and measurement of existential meaning, (in:) G.T. Reker, K. Chamberlain (eds.), Exploring existential meaning: Optimizing human development across the life span, 39–58, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Reker, G.T., Wong, P.T.P. (1988). Aging as an individual process: Toward a theory of personal meaning. (in:) J.E. Birren, V.L. Bengtson (eds.), Emergent theories of aging, 214–246, New York, NY: Springer.
Reker, G.T., Wong, P.T.P. (2012). Personal meaning in life and psychosocial adaptation in the later years. (in:) P.T.P. Wong (ed.), The human quest for meaning: Theories, research, and applications (2nd ed.), 433–456, New York, NY: Routledge.
Schnell, T. (2009). The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe): Relations to demographics and well-being, The Journal of Positive Psychology: Dedicated to Furthering Research and Promoting Good Practice, 4, 483–499.
Schwartz, S.J., Beyers, W., Luyckx, K., Soenens, B., Zamboanga, B.L., Forthun, L.F., Hardy S.A., Vazsonyi, A. T., Ham, L. H., Kim, S.U., Krauss Whitbourne, S., Waterman, A.S. (2011). Examining the light and dark sides of emerging adults’ identity: A study of identity status differences in positive and negative psychosocial functioning, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40 (7), 839-859.
Schwartz, S.J., Zamboanga, B.L., Luyckx, K., Meca, A., & Ritchie, R.A. (2013). Identity in emerging adulthood: Reviewing the field and looking forward, Emerging Adulthood, 1(2), 96-113.
Schwartz, S.J., Petrova, M. (2019). Prevention science in emerging adulthood: A field coming of age, Prevention Science, 20 (3), 305-309.
Schulenberg, J.E., Sameroff, A.J., Cicchetti, D. (2004). The transition to adulthood as a critical juncture in the course of psychopathology and mental health, Development and Psychopathology, 16 (4), 799-806.
Shiah, Y.J., Chang, F., Chiang, S.K., Lin, I.M.,Tam, W.C.C. (2015). Religion and health: Anxiety, religiosity, meaning of life and mental health, Journal of Religion and Health, 54 (1), 35-45.
Soucase, B., García-Alandete, J., Rubio-Belmonte, C. (2021). Presence of/search for meaning and positive psychological functioning in Spanish emerging adults, Current Psychology, 1- 10.
Steger, M.F. (2009). Meaning in life, (in:) S.J. Lopez (ed.), Oxford handbook of positive psychology (2nd ed.), 679–687, New York: Oxford University Press.
Steger, M.F. (2012). Making meaning in life, Psychological Inquiry, 23 (4), 381-385.
Steger, M.F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., Kaler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life, Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80–93.
Steger, M.F., Kawabata, Y., Shimai, S., Otake, K. (2008). The meaningful life in Japan and the United States: Levels and Meaning in Life 67 correlates of meaning in life, Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 660–678.
Steger, M. F., Kashdan, T. B., Sullivan, B. A., Lorentz, D. (2008). Understanding the search for meaning in life: Personality, cognitive style, and the dynamic between seeking and experiencing meaning, Journal of Personality, 76 (2), 199-228.
Steger, M.F., Oishi, S., Kashdan, T.B. (2009). Meaning in life across the life span: Levels and correlates of meaning in life from emerging adulthood to older adulthood, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 43–52.
Steger, M.F., Shin, J.Y., Shim, Y., Fitch-Martin, A. (2013). Is meaning in life a flagship indicator of well-being? (in:) A.S. Waterman (ed.), The best within us: Positive psychology perspectives on eudaimonia, 159–182, Washington, DC: APA Press.
Tanner, J.L. (2016). Mental health in emerging adulthood, (in:) J.J. Arnett (ed.), Oxford handbook of emerging adulthood, 499-520, New York: Oxford University Press.
Wagner, E., Spadola, C., Davis, J.P. (2020). Addictive behaviors during emerging adulthood. (in:) A.L. Begun, M.M. Murray (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Social Work and Addictive Behaviors, 232-246, New York, NY: Routledge.
Webster, J.D., Weststrate, N.M., Ferrari, M., Munroe, M., Pierce, T.W. (2018). Wisdom and eaning in emerging adulthood, Emerging Adulthood, 6 (2), 118-136.
Wood, D., Crapnell, T., Lau, L., Bennett, A., Lotstein, D., Ferris, M., Kuo, A. (2018). Emerging adulthood as a critical stage in the life course, (in:) N. Halfon, C. Forrest, R. Lerner, E. Faustman (eds.) Handbook of life course health development, 123-143, Cham: Springer.
Wolf, S. (2010). Meaning in life and why it matters, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Wong, P.T.P. (2012a). Introduction, (in:) P.T.P. Wong (ed.), The human quest for meaning: Theories, research, and applications (2nd ed.), xxix–xxxii, New York, NY: Routledge.
Wong, P.T.P. (2012b). Toward a dual-systems model of what makes life worth living, (in:) P.T.P. Wong (ed.), The human quest for meaning: Theories, research, and applications, 3-22, New York: Routledge.
Wrosch, C. (2010). Self-regulation of unattainable goals and pathways to quality of life, (in:) S. Folkman (ed.), Oxford handbook of stress, health, and coping, 319-333, New York: Oxford University Press.
Zhang, H., Sang, Z., Chan, D.K.S., Schlegel, R. (2019). Threats to belongingness and meaning in life: A test of the compensation among sources of meaning. Motivation and Emotion, 43 (2), 242-254.