scholarly journals Meaning Matters: Self-Perceived Meaning in Life, Its Predictors and Psychological Stressors Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Ashley Humphrey ◽  
Olivia Vari
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Negative Life Events ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Coping Resources ◽  
Life Meaning ◽  
Life Orientation ◽  
Psychological Stressors ◽  
The Impact

Past research has found that a perceived meaning in life can act as a protective factor against adverse mental health symptomology, while also providing coping resources to buffer against the impact of negative life events. The current research investigated how the impact of self-perceived meaning in life as well as its predictors interact with stressors and worry related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected survey based data (n = 260) from Australian participants during the pandemic, measuring their meaning in life, orientation to differing life goals and COVID-19 related stressors via the impact of events scale. We found that meaning in life predicted less stress and worry associated with COVID-19. We also found that intrinsic based aspirations related positively to meaning in life within this context whereas extrinsic based goals related negatively to it, although these aspirations were not significant in reducing the stressors associated with COVID-19. These results reinforce past findings that meaning in life can effectively buffer against the impact of negative life events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. They also suggest that intrinsic based aspirations centred on relationships and self-acceptance may be an important mechanism in how people choose to pursue life meaning during uncertain life events.

scholarly journals Longitudinal investigation of the role of temperament and stressful life events in childhood anxiety

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Broeren ◽  
Carol Newall ◽  
Helen F. Dodd ◽  
Ruth Locker ◽  
Jennifer L. Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Negative Life Events ◽  
Childhood Anxiety ◽  
Diagnostic Interview ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Positive Behavior ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe current study investigated the longitudinal relationships among behavioral inhibition (BI), life events, and anxiety in a sample of 102 BI children and 100 behaviorally uninhibited (BUI) children aged 3 to 4 years. Children's parents completed questionnaires on BI, stressful life events, and anxiety symptoms, and were administered a diagnostic interview three times in a 5-year period. In line with our hypotheses, negative life events, particularly negative behavior-dependent life events (i.e., life events that are related to the children's own behaviors), and the impact of negative life events were predictive of increases in subsequent anxiety symptoms, the likelihood of having an anxiety disorder, and increased number of anxiety diagnoses over the 5-year follow-up period. Experiencing more positive, behavior-independent life events decreased the risk of being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Furthermore, differences were found in life events between BI and BUI children. That is, BI children experienced fewer positive and specifically positive behavior-dependent life events, and the impact of these positive life events was also lower in BI children than in BUI children. However, BI did not interact with life events in the prediction of anxiety problems as hypothesized. Therefore, this study seems to indicate that BI and life events act as additive risk factors in the development of anxiety problems.

scholarly journals Assessment of Undergraduates’ Real-World Outcomes of Critical Thinking in Everyday Situations

2017 ◽  
Vol 120 (4) ◽  
pp. 707-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda R. Franco ◽  
Patrício S. Costa ◽  
Heather A. Butler ◽  
Leandro S. Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Real World ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Negative Life Events ◽  
Self Report ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Portuguese Version ◽  
Original Proposal ◽  
The Impact

Critical thinking is a kind of “good” thinking that integrates a set of cognitive skills and dispositions to use those skills with knowledge to increase the chances of success in academic settings, job market, and daily life. The impact of critical thinking on life events, in face of everyday decisions and challenges, is still unclear, and further research is needed. In this exploratory study, a sample of 230 first-year students of a Bachelor’s Degree or a Master’s Degree in Portugal completed an experimental Portuguese version of the Real-World Outcomes, a self-report inventory measuring everyday negative life events that are mediated by a lack of critical thinking. Based on exploratory factor analysis results and theoretical premises, changes were made to the Portuguese version of the inventory that was administered, and items were aggregated into six dimensions, creating a new version that is more familiar to Portuguese young adults in college. This original proposal of the inventory presents six types of negative life events resulting from a lack of critical thinking: health neglect, mismanagement, slackness, poor impulse control, academic negligence, and rashness. Both limitations and future potentialities of this version are presented.

scholarly journals Still Doing Fine? the Interplay of Negative Life Events and Self–Esteem during Young Adulthood

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 358-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Tetzner ◽  
Michael Becker ◽  
Jürgen Baumert
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Young Adulthood ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Negative Life Events ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Selection Effects ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Change Models ◽  
Bidirectional Relationship

This longitudinal study investigated the bidirectional relationship between negative life events and self–esteem during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood (N = 2272). Drawing on theories of human development over the lifespan and just–world theory, we analyzed age–graded changes in self–esteem and their interplay with negative life events at three measurement points over a 12–year period. We addressed both the short–term and the longer term effects of single as well as multiple negative life events on changes in self–esteem (socialization effects). We further investigated whether the pre–event level of self–esteem affected the likelihood of negative life events occurring (selection effects) and, finally, whether it had protective effects in terms of helping people adjust to negative events. Latent change models yielded four main findings: (i) self–esteem increased during young adulthood; (ii) socialization effects were observed over shorter and longer timespans, but (iii) selection effects were only found for multiple negative life events, with low self–esteem predicting a high number of negative life events; (iv) high pre–event self–esteem acted as a protective factor, attenuating declines in self–esteem after experience of multiple negative life events. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology

Confucian Values, Negative Life Events, and Rural Young Suicide with Major Depression in China

2015 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cun-Xian Jia ◽  
Jie Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Major Depression ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Negative Life Events ◽  
Confucian Values ◽  
Same Gender ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of this research was to understand the characteristics of rural young suicides with major depression in China and the relationship of these events with Confucian values and negative life events. Our cases were 90 rural suicides with major depression with victims aged 15 to 34 years and living matched controls of the same gender, age (within 3 years), and county of residence. Confucian values appear to be a protective factor for men but a risk factor for women with regard to suicide with major depression. More attention should be paid to Confucian values in suicide prevention efforts.

Self Other Judgements about Perceptions of Vulnerability to Crime among Urban Transient Females

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charisse Tia Maria Coston
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
General Population ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Negative Life Events ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Past Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Homeless Women ◽  
Protective Behaviors ◽  
Criminal Victimization

Past research conducted among segments of the general population concludes that people who have not been victimized by negative life events tend to perceive themselves as uniquely invulnerable compared to others in terms of future victimization risk. In contrast, people who have been victimized tend to believe that the probability of future victimizations of negative life events compared to others are more likely. Non-victims also tend not to utilize self-protective behaviors to the extent that victims do. This current paper extends this analysis to an especially vulnerable segment that represents one of the lowest socioeconomic groups in the United States of America: the urban transient female or homeless women. Two hundred of New York City's homeless women were interviewed in order to determine if their judgments of other homeless women's vulnerability to criminal victimization would differ from their judgments of their own vulnerability to criminal victimization. Responses were expected to be dependent upon their personal characteristics (e.g., crime-related determinants, victimization experiences both before and while living their precarious street existence), and the use of self-protective behaviors. Cross-tabulated results indicate consistency with and support for prior research conducted with segments of the general population.

Telemedicine to support coping resources in home-living patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Patients’ experiences

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torunn K Vatnøy ◽  
Elin Thygesen ◽  
Bjørg Dale
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Coping Resources ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Home Living ◽  
The Impact

Introduction The way in which telemedicine contributes to promote coping and independence might be undervalued in the development of telemedicine solutions and the implementation of telemedicine interventions. This study explored how home-living patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experienced follow-up using telemedicine, and the extent to which the implemented technology was able to support and improve the patients’ coping resources and independence. Methods A qualitative approach with individual semi-structured interviews was used. Ten patients diagnosed with COPD participated. The data were transcribed verbatim and a qualitative content analysis method was used, including analyses of the manifest and latent content of the texts. Results The participants’ positive attitude to handling and understanding the technology and the positive and negative feelings related to use the technology derived the theme: “The telemedicine solution is experienced as comprehensible and manageable and provides meaning in daily life”. The importance of telemedicine services that provided trust and confidence, the intervention’s impact on independence and self-management and the intervention’s ability to support integrity and meaning in life, derived the theme: “The telemedicine intervention contributes to stress reduction caused by illness burden and facilitates living as normally as possible”. Discussion The impact of a telemedicine intervention might be influenced by the experience of a technological solution that requires little effort to deal with, while it must also provide meaning in life. Furthermore, the telenurses’ expertise and the intervention’s flexibility, i.e. possibilities for individual adaption, might promote coping to facilitate living as normally as possible despite illness.

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