Meaning in Life in Emerging Adulthood: A Person‐Oriented Approach
Open accessAbstract
The present study investigated naturally occurring profiles based on two dimensions of meaning in life: Presence of Meaning and Search for Meaning. Cluster analysis was used to examine meaning‐in‐life profiles, and subsequent analyses identified different patterns in psychosocial functioning for each profile. A sample of 8,492 American emerging adults (72.5% women) from 30 colleges and universities completed measures on meaning in life, and positive and negative psychosocial functioning. Results provided support for five meaningful yet distinguishable profiles. A strong generalizability of the cluster solution was found across age, and partial generalizability was found across gender and ethnicity. Furthermore, the five profiles showed specific patterns in relation to positive and negative psychosocial functioning. Specifically, respondents with profiles high on Presence of Meaning showed the most adaptive psychosocial functioning, whereas respondents with profiles where meaning was largely absent showed maladaptive psychosocial functioning. The present study provided additional evidence for prior research concerning the complex relationship between Presence of Meaning and Search for Meaning, and their relation with psychosocial functioning. Our results offer a partial clarification of the nature of the Search for Meaning process by distinguishing between adaptive and maladaptive searching for meaning in life.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 64 · Cited by 133
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Baumeister R (1991). Meanings in life. New York: Guilford Press.
- Steger MF (2012). Experiencing meaning in life: Optimal functioning at the nexus of spirituality, psychopathology, and well-being In T P. Wong P (Ed.), The human quest for meaning (2nd ed., pp. 165– 184). New York: Routledge.
- Authors
- Dezutter, J., Waterman, A. S., Schwartz, S. J., Luyckx, K., Beyers, W., Meca, A., Kim, S. Y., Whitbourne, S. K., Zamboanga, B. L., Lee, R. M., Hardy, S. A., Forthun, L. F., Ritchie, R. A., Weisskirch, R. S., Brown, E. J., & Caraway, S. J.
- Affiliations
- KU Leuven (BE)
- The College of New Jersey (US)
- University of Miami (US)
- Ghent University (BE)
- Florida International University (US)
- University of Texas
- University of Massachusetts
- Smith College (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Brigham Young University (US)
- University of Florida (US)
- California State University, Monterey Bay (US)
- St. John's University (US)
- University of South Dakota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dezutter, Jessie
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Personality
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-04-08
- Volume
- 82
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 57-68
- ISSN
- 0022-3506 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-6494
- PMC
- PMC7885257
- OpenAlex
- W2166437868
- Cited by
- 133
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 14.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Personality (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Vlaamse regering
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD042849)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Keywords
- meaning in life, emerging adulthood, presence of meaning, search for meaning, psychosocial functioning, personality profiles, university students, gender differences, ethnic differences
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Aggression, Aging, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Motivation, Personal Satisfaction, Quality of Life, Self Concept, Social Adjustment, Dental Anxiety, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
