The Role of Existential Meaning as a Buffer Against Stress

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.

[1]  D. Larson,et al.  Religious Commitment and Mental Health: A Review of the Empirical Literature , 1991 .

[2]  J. Crumbaugh.  Cross-validation of Purpose-in-Life test based on Frankl's concepts. , 1968, Journal of individual psychology.

[3]  S. Zika,et al.  Religiosity, life meaning and wellbeing: Some relationships in a sample of women. , 1988 .

[4]  C. R. Snyder.  Handbook of hope: Theory, measures, and applications. , 2000 .

[5]  P. Lovibond,et al.  The structure of negative emotional states: comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. , 1995, Behaviour research and therapy.

[6]  P. Wong.  Meaning-centered counseling. , 1998 .

[7]  E. D. Scannell,et al.  Meaning in life and positive and negative well-being. , 2002 .

[8]  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche,et al.  The Portable Nietzsche , 1954 .

[9]  D. Debats,et al.  On the psychometric properties of the life regard index (LRI): A measure of meaningful life: An evaluation in three independent samples based on the Dutch version , 1993 .

[10]  S. Murray.  Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy. , 1999 .

[11]  Robert A Emmons,et al.  Assessing Spirituality Through Personal Goals: Implications for Research on Religion and Subjective Well-Being , 1998 .

[12]  G. Reker,et al.  Factor Structure, Construct Validity and Reliability of the Seeking of Noetic Goals (SONG) and Purpose in Life (PIL) Tests. , 1979 .

[13]  M. Dyck.  Assessing logotherapeutic constructs: Conceptual and psychometric status of the purpose in life and seeking of noetic goals tests , 1987 .

[14]  N. Jacobson,et al.  Why do people think they are depressed?: The Reasons For Depression Questionnaire. , 1995 .

[15]  G. Reker.  Theoretical Perspective, Dimensions, and Measurement of Existential Meaning , 2000 .

[16]  K. Herth.  Development and refinement of an instrument to measure hope. , 1991, Scholarly inquiry for nursing practice.

[17]  P. Wong,et al.  The human quest for meaning : a handbook of psychological research and clinical applications , 1998 .

[18]  D. Debats,et al.  Experiences of meaning in life: a combined qualitative and quantitative approach. , 1995, British journal of psychology.

[19]  C. R. Snyder,et al.  Development and validation of the State Hope Scale. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[20]  D. Debats.  The Life Regard Index: Reliability and Validity , 1990 .

[21]  K Chamberlain,et al.  On the relation between meaning in life and psychological well-being. , 1992, British journal of psychology.

[22]  J. Myers,et al.  Life events, social integration and psychiatric symptomatology. , 1975, Journal of health and social behavior.

[23]  Jeffrey S. Levin,et al.  Research on religion and mental health , 1998 .

[24]  S. Zika,et al.  Measuring meaning in life: An examination of three scales , 1988 .

[25]  J. Crumbaugh,et al.  AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY IN EXISTENTIALISM: THE PSYCHOMETRIC APPROACH TO FRANKL'S CONCEPT OF NOOGENIC NEUROSIS. , 1964, Journal of clinical psychology.

[26]  R. Lazarus,et al.  Comparison of two modes of stress measurement: Daily hassles and uplifts versus major life events , 1981, Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

[27]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[28]  D. Debats.  Meaning in life: clinical relevance and predictive power. , 1996, The British journal of clinical psychology.

[29]  Neil B. Rappaport,et al.  A daily stress inventory: Development, reliability, and validity , 1987, Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

[30]  P. Lovibond,et al.  Manual for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. 2 , 1995 .

[31]  J. Rabkin,et al.  Live events, stress, and illness. , 1976, Science.

[32]  David J. A. Dozois,et al.  A psychometric evaluation of the Beck Depression inventory-II , 1998 .

[33]  Lindsay Barrett,et al.  Twilight of the idols , 2008 .

[34]  R. Kessler,et al.  Social factors in psychopathology: stress, social support, and coping processes. , 1985, Annual review of psychology.

[35]  A. Bergin.  Religiosity and Mental Health: A Critical Reevaluation and Meta-Analysis , 1983 .

[36]  H. Koenig.  Handbook of religion and mental health , 1998 .

[37]  O. K. Buros,et al.  The seventh mental measurements yearbook , 1973 .

[38]  D. Debats.  Sources of Meaning: An Investigation of Significant Commitments in Life , 1999 .

[39]  T. Hora,et al.  Existential psychotherapy. , 1962, Current psychiatric therapies.

[40]  E. Klinger.  The search for meaning in evolutionary perspective and its clinical implications. , 1998 .

[41]  P. Wong.  Implicit theories of meaningful life and the development of the personal meaning profile. , 1998 .

[42]  Alex H. S. Harris,et al.  Psychometric Properties of the Life Regard Index–Revised: A Validation Study of a Measure of Personal Meaning , 2001, Psychological reports.

[43]  A. Sherman,et al.  Religious faith and spirituality in substance abuse recovery: determining the mental health benefits. , 2000, Journal of substance abuse treatment.

[44]  P. Brantley,et al.  Convergence between the Daily Stress Inventory and endocrine measures of stress. , 1988, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[45]  K. Chamberlain,et al.  Exploring Existential Meaning: Optimizing Human Development Across the Life Span , 1999 .

[46]  L. George,et al.  Spirituality and Health: What We Know, What We Need to Know , 2000 .

[47]  T. Brown,et al.  Psychometric properties of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) in clinical samples. , 1997, Behaviour research and therapy.

[48]  L. Morey,et al.  The development, construct validity, and clinical utility of the spiritual meaning scale , 2004 .

[49]  The Daily Stress Inventory: Validity and effect of repeated administration , 1988 .

[50]  R. Almond,et al.  The development of meaning in life. , 1973, Psychiatry.

[51]  R. Piedmont.  Does Spirituality Represent the Sixth Factor of Personality? Spiritual Transcendence and the Five-Factor Model , 1999 .

[52]  D. H. Rosen,et al.  Existential meaning's role in the enhancement of hope and prevention of depressive symptoms. , 2005, Journal of personality.

[53]  S. Maddi.  The existential neurosis. , 1967 .

[54]  D.L.H.M. Debats,et al.  Measurement of Personal meaning: The psychometric properties of the life regard index , 1998 .