ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Although there is accumulating evidence for an inverse relation between life meaning and psychological distress, little is known about the mechanisms of this relation. Using cross-sectional, observational methods, this research examined fear of uncertainty as one potential mechanism.

Design and Methods: Study 1 (N = 141) was completed with a convenience sample, a unidimensional measure of life meaning, and general measures of anxiety and depression. Study 2 (N = 152) was completed with a sample prescreened for anxiety, a multidimensional measure of life meaning, and clinical measures of anxiety and depression.

Results: The results from both studies generally showed an inverse relation between life meaning and psychological distress. Study 2 further indicated that these relations were stronger for the meaning subscale of perceiving life as coherent/comprehensible than the subscales assessing whether participants’ lives are perceived as purposeful or significant. Mediation analyses in both studies showed indirect effects of life meaning on psychological distress through fear of uncertainty.

Conclusions: These findings support and extend previous research by showing that (i) meaning-as-comprehension may be particularly important in regards to psychological distress, and (ii) fear of uncertainty may mediate the inverse relation between meaning and measures of anxiety and depression.

摘要

背景和目的：虽然有越来越多的证据表明生活意义和心理困扰之间存在反比关系，但人们对这种关系的机制知之甚少。这项研究使用横断面观察方法，将对不确定性的恐惧作为一种潜在机制进行了检验。

设计和方法：研究 1 ( N  = 141) 使用便利样本、生活意义的一维测量以及焦虑和抑郁的一般测量来完成。研究 2 ( N  = 152) 完成了对焦虑、生活意义的多维测量以及焦虑和抑郁的临床测量的样本进行预筛选。

结果：两项研究的结果普遍表明，生活意义与心理困扰之间存在反比关系。研究 2 进一步表明，与评估参与者的生活是否被认为是有目的的或重要的子量表相比，将生活感知为连贯/可理解的意义分量表的这些关系更强。两项研究中的中介分析表明，生活意义通过对不确定性的恐惧对心理痛苦产生间接影响。

结论：这些发现支持并扩展了先前的研究，表明（i）理解的意义在心理困扰方面可能特别重要，以及（ii）对不确定性的恐惧可能调节意义与焦虑和抑郁测量之间的反比关系.