The Role of Existential Meaning as a Buffer Against Stress

Abstract

An ethnically diverse sample of 143 college undergraduates was used to test the hypothesis that a sense of existential meaning buffers against the effect of stress on depression and hope. Spiritual meaning as measured by the Spiritual Meaning Scale and personal meaning as measured by the framework subscale from the Life Regard Index-Revised were significantly negatively correlated with depressive symptoms and positively correlated with hope. Spiritual meaning, but not personal meaning, moderated the relationship between stress and depression such that there was a strong relationship between depression and stress for individuals with low levels of spiritual meaning but no relationship between stress and depression for individuals with high levels of spiritual meaning. It appears that, though both spiritual and personal meaning are inversely related to depression and positively related to hope, only spiritual meaning moderates the relationship between daily stress and depression.

The relation of perceived meaning of life, meaning of illness and anxious-depressive symptoms among cancer patients

“…Perceived meaning of life, measured with the Meaning in Life after Cancer Scale, shows negative and significant correlations with all three variables. These results are in accordance with the literature (MASCARO & ROSEN 2004;MASCARO, ROSEN & MOREY 2006) and these relationships hold true of cancer disease (BRADY et al 1999;FIFE 1995;JIM & ANDERSEN 2007). In our study we found that results are dependent on the applied instrument measuring meaningfulness.…”

“…According to literature, meaningfulness is related to several indicators of well-being, for example satisfaction with life, positive affectivity (ZIKA & CHAMBERLAIN 1992), self-esteem, optimism (STEGER & FRAZIER 2005), selfefficacy, subjective health (SKRABSKI et al 2005), and shows negative correlation with negative indicators of well-being, like oncological and cardiovascular mortality rates (SKRABSKI et al 2005), smoking (KONKOLŸ THEGE 2009), suicidal thoughts (EDWARDS & HOLDEN 2001), anxious and depressive symptoms (MASCARO & ROSEN 2004).…”

Sentido de Vida, Bem-Estar Psicológico e Qualidade de Vida em Professores Escolares

“…Decades of research have supported Frankl's main assumptions, showing MIL as an important predictor of physical health (Jim & Andersen, 2007), psychological well-being and quality of life (Fillion et al, 2009;Ho et al, 2010;Melton & Schulenberg, 2008). A lack of meaning, on the other hand, has been associated with higher depression levels (Mascaro & Rosen, 2006), suicidal ideas (Edwards & Holden, 2001), drug addiction (Henrion, 2002), among others.…”

“…In addition, as a protective resource, MIL supports the appropriate use of coping and stress management resources, protecting subjects against negative events and feelings experienced at work (Bonebright, Clay, & Ankenmann, 2000;Mascaro & Rosen, 2006). Considering teachers as a professional group that generally displays high levels of emotional exhaustion, the aim of this study was to evaluate MIL, psychological well-being (PWB) and quality of life (QOL) rates in a comprehensive sample of school teachers, as well as to observe how MIL can act as a moderating variable of the relation between PWB and general QOL.…”

“…According to Mascaro and Rosen (2006), MIL is capable of resignifying adverse situations, acting as a buffer by modifying the perception and/or meaning of stressful events (Halama & Bakosova, 2009;Mascaro & Rosen, 2006) during the evaluation phase (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), reducing or eliminating their impact. Also, teachers with higher MIL rates may also perceive life more optimistically.…”