ABSTRACT

Background: and Objectives: This research examined whether life meaning promotes resilience to stressor-related psychological distress and repetitive negative thinking.

Design and Methods: Three studies (total N = 273) used cross-sectional (Study 1) and prospective (Studies 2 and 3) designs to assess the relation between life meaning and response to various stressors.

Results: Results showed that in Study 1, greater life meaning was inversely related with repetitive negative thinking and psychological distress. Further, a mediation analysis showed an indirect effect for the life meaning-repetitive negative thinking relation through psychological distress. In Study 2, baseline life meaning predicted less repetitive negative thinking about a subsequent city-wide flood. In Study 3, baseline life meaning was inversely related to distress and repetitive negative thinking after writing about an aversive memory. A mediation analysis showed an indirect effect for the life meaning-repetitive negative thinking relation through distress.

Conclusions: In all studies, life meaning predicted outcomes when controlling for other positive well-being variables. Overall, the findings suggest that individuals with greater trait life meaning experience less stressor-related distress and repetitive negative thinking and that the life meaning-repetitive negative thinking relation may be mediated by distress.

摘要

背景和目的：这项研究检验了生命意义是否能促进对压力源相关心理困扰和重复性消极思维的恢复。

设计和方法：三项研究（总N  = 273）使用横断面（研究 1）和前瞻性（研究 2 和 3）设计来评估生活意义与对各种压力源的反应之间的关系。

结果：结果表明，在研究 1 中，更大的生活意义与重复的消极思维和心理困扰呈负相关。此外，中介分析表明，心理困扰对生活意义-重复消极思维关系有间接影响。在研究 2 中，基线生活意义预测了对随后的全市洪水的重复消极想法。在研究 3 中，基线生活意义与写下厌恶性记忆后的痛苦和重复性消极思维呈负相关。中介分析表明，苦恼对生活意义-重复消极思维关系有间接影响。

结论：在所有研究中，当控制其他积极的幸福变量时，生命意义可以预测结果。总体而言，研究结果表明，具有更大特质生命意义的个体经历的与压力源相关的痛苦和重复性消极思维较少，并且生活意义-重复性消极思维关系可能是由痛苦介导的。