Meaningful Living to Promote Complete Mental Health Among University Students in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Maintaining positive mental health can be challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic which undoubtedly caused devastating consequences on people’s lives. There is need to determine factors contributing to mental health of people during the pandemic. The current study aims to examine the effect of meaning in life on complete mental health, which represents the presence of positive functioning and the absence of psychopathological symptoms. The participants of the study included 392 (70.9% female) undergraduate students, ranging in age from 18 to 43 years ( M = 20.67 years, SD = 3.66) and they have predominantly been imposed stay-at-home orders for coronavirus right after announcement of COVID-19 restrictions in Turkey. Latent variable path analyses demonstrated significant paths from meaning in life to all components of psychological distress, positive mental health, and subjective well-being. Multi-group analysis showed significant gender differences across the study variables. These findings corroborate the critical role of meaning in life in promoting complete mental health and shed further light on why people high in meaning in life tend to have better mental health than those low in meaning in life within the context of COVID-19.

A Moderated Mediation Effect of Stress-Related Growth and Meaning in Life in the Association Between Coronavirus Suffering and Satisfaction With Life: Development of the Stress-Related Growth Measure

“…A high level of coronavirus is diminished by meaning in life, which in turn leads to greater satisfaction with life. Extant studies have confirmed the positive relationships between meaning in life and satisfaction with life (García-Alandete, 2015 ; Arslan et al, 2020a ; Yildirim et al, 2020a ; Arslan and Yildirim, 2021 ). To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has examined the underlying relations among coronavirus suffering, meaning in life, and satisfaction with life in the context of the current pandemic.…”

“…Individuals with high levels of stressrelated growth are less vulnerable to coronavirus suffering and report greater meaning in life and satisfaction with life. Previous studies have demonstrated that the experience of stressors would reduce a person's resilience and the sense of meaning in life in the face of traumatic events (Yildirim et al, 2020a(Yildirim et al, , 2021. Stress-related growth is related to positive states of mind, and it has benefits for individuals who experience it, including both positive changes in personal resources such as mastery and better psychological adjustment following the traumatic events (Park and Fenster, 2004).…”

“…Although pandemic-related stress may threaten the meaning in life and undermine positive psychological health, it is possible that not all people are equally influenced. Earlier research showed that the detrimental effects of pandemic-related stress were more salient for people with low meaning in life and resilience (Yildirim et al, 2020a). However, no previous research has examined the mediating role of meaning in life in relation to coronavirus experiences, stress-related growth, and satisfaction with life in the context of the current pandemic.…”

“…Research has longitudinally indicated that experience of meaning in life reduces depressive symptoms and promotes wellbeing (Mascaro and Rosen, 2008). Moreover, the literature has proven that meaning in life is a critical factor that mediates the impact of coronavirus-related stress and well-being and psychological health (Arslan and Yildirim, 2021;Yildirim et al, 2021) and protects mental health in the context of the pandemic (Arslan et al, 2020a). As such, promoting meaning in life can reduce pandemic-related stress and influence satisfaction with life of individuals in the face of adversity.…”

“…Meaning in life is considered one of the crucial ingredients of psychological well-being (Ryff and Keyes, 1995 ). A considerable body of empirical research has shown that high meaning in life is positively related to well-being as well as to a wide range of other positive outcomes (García-Alandete, 2015 ; Arslan et al, 2020a ) and negatively related to depression, anxiety, and stress (Ishida and Okada, 2006 ). Research has longitudinally indicated that experience of meaning in life reduces depressive symptoms and promotes well-being (Mascaro and Rosen, 2008 ).…”