Student Veterans: Meaning in Life, Negative Career Thoughts, and Depression

Abstract

Student veterans may experience challenges as they transition from military to student life, including adjusting to the academic environment, coping with mental health concerns, and redefining their identities. Research indicates that veterans may have difficulty finding meaning and purpose outside of the military (Brenner et al., 2008; Doenges, 2011). This study explored variables that may affect meaning and purpose in student veterans' lives, specifically negative career thoughts and depression. One hundred thirty‐two student veterans at U.S. institutions were surveyed. The results revealed that both negative career thoughts and depression were statistically significant predictors (p < .001) of the presence of meaning in life, with 46% of the variance in the presence of meaning in life scores accounted for by participants' negative career thinking and depression levels. Pearson correlations indicated that all variables were statistically significant (p < .01). Future research could explore how other career readiness and self‐assessment constructs are related to meaning and purpose in student veterans' lives, as well as the intersection of mental health and career factors. Interventions that focus both on the presence of negative career thoughts and depressive symptomatology may positively influence student veterans' report of meaning and purpose in life.

Impacts of Career Adaptability, Life Meaning, Career Satisfaction, and Work Volition on Level of Life Satisfaction and Job Performance

“…Life meaning is considered as the extent to which people can perceive or fully understand and appreciate their personal life purposes (Steger, Oishi, & Kashdan, 2009;Yuen & Yau, 2015). It is considered a significant outcome to obtain, especially for young workers (Buzzetta, Lenz, Hayden, & Osborn, 2020). This idea was previously demonstrated in a study by Berg, Grant, & Johnson (2010), which described the tendency of young employees to decide on career and life matters, sharpen their capabilities, and set targets that help them to reach more meaningful working positions in the future.…”

Moderating role of Negative Career Thoughts in the Relationship between Motivation and Burnout in Portuguese Dual Career Athletes

“…Consequently, maintaining a dual career may result in the need to choose between maximizing sporting potential or getting someone's training/occupation to secure a postsports career [4,1]. In this sense, negative thoughts about maintaining a dual career have been associated with higher levels of burnout and lower levels of motivation [17]. Negative career thoughts (NCT) are expressed as conjectures/assumptions, beliefs and generalizations that a person has about himself and the world of work, which function as cognitive barriers and interfere with the career decision-making process and the development of well-being [18,19].…”

“…Despite the limitations, our results highlight the importance of developing interventions focused on the beliefs about the dual career of student athletes, especially for student athletes who have high levels of anxiety and decision insecurity [23]. Exercises to encourage setting personal goals, situations for exploring oneself and the environment, as well as activities aimed at cognitive restructuring of negative thoughts associated with dual careers (identification, challenge and change of negative thoughts), followed by behavioral interventions to help clients to act on their new thoughts [17], are highly recommended.…”

The relationships among the big 5 personality factors and negative career thoughts

“…Studies investigating factors that impact career decision‐making, such as career thoughts, have been an area of interest in recent years (e.g., Andrews, 2014; Atta et al., 2013; Finklea, 2016; Hechtlinger, et al., 2019). Furthermore, negative career thoughts and career indecision have been correlated with mental health factors including depression (Buzzetta et al., 2020; Dieringer et al., 2017; Walker & Peterson, 2012), anxiety (Poler, 2010), worry (Hayden et al, 2021), and meaning in life (Buzzetta et al., 2020). Understanding relationships between personality and various career constructs may enhance the practice of integrating research findings and theories when providing services to clients (Rottinghaus et al., 2020).…”

“…CIP theory places a particular emphasis on the role of negative career thoughts in career problem solving and decision‐making. Negative career thoughts have been shown to be correlated with mental health factors, positively predicting career and life stress (Bullock‐Yowell, Peterson et al., 2011), low vocational identity and negatively predicting career decision state (Leierer et al., 2020), and presence of meaning in life (Buzzetta et al., 2020).…”