Disentangling trait and daily experiences of uncertainty and meaning in life: implications for daily anxiety, negative affect, and somatic symptoms.

Background: Although there is growing evidence supporting the association between intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and psychopathology, little is known about the covariation of IU and psychological distress day-to-day. The purpose of this ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study was to examine negative emotional and somatic correlates of trait IU and daily uncertainty, while investigating how a source of stability, meaning in life (MIL), might buffer against deleterious effects of IU and uncertainty.

Design And Methods: Adult community members ( = 62) from a mid-size town in the Rocky Mountain region completed baseline measures of IU and MIL and ecological momentary assessments (EMA) of meaning, uncertainty, affect, and somatic symptoms over the course of one week.

Meaning, social support, and resilience as predictors of posttraumatic growth: A study of the Louisiana flooding of August 2016.

Individuals who survive natural hazards often develop posttraumatic stress symptoms or other forms of psychological distress. However, some experience psychological growth. Given that natural hazards will increase in the near future due to global warming, it would be helpful to examine predictors of growth across different kinds of natural hazards.

Assessing meaning & purpose in life: development and validation of an item bank and short forms for the NIH PROMIS.

Purpose: A sense of meaning and purpose is important for people living with acute and chronic illness. It can buffer the effects of stress and facilitate adaptive coping. As part of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), we developed and validated an item response theory (IRT)-based measure of meaning and purpose in life.

Patient-family communication mediates the relation between family hardiness and caregiver positivity: Exploring the moderating role of caregiver depression and anxiety.

Despite the theoretical and empirical significance of positive aspects of caregiving in caregiver well-being, relatively little is known regarding family-related predictors of caregiver positivity. This study examines whether patient-family communication (p-f communication) mediates the relation between family hardiness and caregiver positivity and whether the mediating effects of p-f communication are moderated by the levels of caregiver depression and anxiety. This study used secondary data obtained from a large-scale cross-sectional national survey conducted in South Korea.

Understanding work enjoyment among older workers: The significance of flexible work options and age discrimination in the workplace.

Although the number of older workers in the U.S. is increasing, there is a gap in knowledge on whether or not they actually enjoy working.

Refining and supplementing candidate measures of psychological well-being for the NIH PROMIS®: qualitative results from a mixed cancer sample.

Purpose: The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) is a National Institutes of Health initiative designed to improve patient-reported outcomes using state-of-the-art psychometric methods. The aim of this study is to describe qualitative efforts to identify and refine items from psychological well-being subdomains for future testing, psychometric evaluation, and inclusion within PROMIS.

Method: Seventy-two items from eight existing measures of positive affect, life satisfaction, meaning & purpose, and general self-efficacy were reviewed, and 48 new items were identified or written where content was lacking.

Meaning making, self-determination theory, and the question of wisdom in personality.

Self-determination theory (SDT) has advanced the most comprehensive model of motives for human flourishing in the field of personality psychology and beyond. In this article, we evaluate SDT relative to the process of meaning making, particularly from a narrative perspective, showing what SDT can and cannot explain about the construction of self-identity and its relation to human flourishing. On the one hand, SDT explains how subjective assessments of need fulfillment drive the process of self-determined living.

The meaningful identity: A longitudinal look at the interplay between identity and meaning in life in adolescence.

Identity formation in adolescence is closely linked to searching for and acquiring meaning in one's life. To date little is known about the manner in which these 2 constructs may be related in this developmental stage. In order to shed more light on their longitudinal links, we conducted a 3-wave longitudinal study, investigating how identity processes and meaning in life dimensions are interconnected across time, testing the moderating effects of gender and age.

EFNEP's Impact on Exemplary Educators' Quality of Life.

Objective: To determine how the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) affects the quality of life (QoL) of its exemplary paraprofessional educators.

Methods: Qualitative telephone interviews with EFNEP supervisors (15), educators (28), and agency partners (15). Template analysis based on the University of Toronto's QoL constructs.

Meaning and Posttraumatic Growth Among Survivors of the September 2013 Colorado Floods.

In the wake of significant adversity, a range of recovery outcomes are possible, from prolonged distress to minimal effects on functioning and even psychological growth. Finding meaning in one's life is thought to facilitate optimal recovery from such adversity. Research on psychological growth and recovery often focuses on the daily hassles or significant traumas of convenience samples or on people's psychological recovery from medical illness.

A reason to stay healthy: The role of meaning in life in relation to physical activity and healthy eating among adolescents.

The present longitudinal study investigated the incremental contribution of meaning in life to sustaining health-promoting behaviors, after controlling for well-being and health values among East-European adolescents (N = 456). Time 1 responses on presence of meaning, search for meaning, well-being, and health values were used to predict levels of healthy eating and physical activity 13 months later. All independent variables significantly predicted engagement in healthy eating and physical activity.

Violations of war: testing the meaning-making model among Vietnam veterans.

Objective: Posttrauma adjustment theories postulate that intense stressors violate people's beliefs about the world and perceived ability to achieve valued goals. Failure to make meaning from traumatic events exacerbates negative adjustment (e.g.

EFNEP's impact on the quality of life of its participants and educators.

Objective: Determine whether the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) affects the quality of life (QOL) of its participants and educators.

Design: Longitudinal, where QOL was measured 3 times for participants (pre, post, 3-month delayed post) and educators (before and 6 and 12 months after training).

Setting: Participants' and educators' QOL was measured in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Individual and parental factors related to meaning in life among Hungarian minority adolescents from Romania.

Understanding how adolescents achieve meaning in life has important implications for their psychological development. A social cognitive model of meaning development was tested by assessing psychological (self-efficacy, self-regulation and social comparison) and parental (parental responsiveness, demandingness, and social support) variables in a sample of 1944 adolescents (aged 15-19 years; 47.8% males) from secondary schools of the Middle Transylvanian Region, Romania.

Make Your Work Matter: development and pilot evaluation of a purpose-centered career education intervention.

Developing a sense of purpose is both salient and desirable for adolescents, and purpose in people's lives and careers is associated with both general and work-related well-being. However, little is known about whether purpose can be encouraged through school-based interventions. This article reports the results of a quasi-experimental pilot study and follow-up focus group that evaluated Make Your Work Matter, a three-module, school-based intervention designed to help adolescent youth explore, discover, and enact a sense of purpose in their early career development.

A preliminary report on a new measure: Internalization of the Model Minority Myth Measure (IM-4) and its psychological correlates among Asian American college students.

This investigation is a preliminary report on a new measure of internalization of the model minority myth. In 3 studies, there was evidence for the validation of the 15-item Internalization of the Model Minority Myth Measure (IM-4), with 2 subscales. The Model Minority Myth of Achievement Orientation referred to the myth of Asian Americans' greater success than other racial minority groups associated with their stronger work ethics, perseverance, and drives to succeed.

Meaning in life: is it a protective factor for adolescents' psychological health?

Background: Searching for a coherent meaning in life has long been proposed to be a protective factor in adolescent development.

Purpose: The present study aimed to examine meaning in life as a protective factor in a largely unstudied population: Romanian adolescents. Additionally, we sought to provide a novel, multidimensional assessment of several health-related variables (substance abuse, health risk behaviors, psychological health).

Validation of the subtle and blatant racism scale for Asian American college students (SABR-A(2)).

This investigation describes the validation of a measure of perceived racism developed to assess racial experiences of Asian American college students. In three studies across two different regions of the United States, there was strong evidence for the validation of the 8-item Subtle and Blatant Racism Scale for Asian American College Students (SABR-A2). The subtle racism subscale refers to instances of discrimination attributable implicitly to racial bias or stereotype, whereas the blatant racism subscale refers to instances of discrimination attributable explicitly to racial bias or stereotype.

Depression and Everyday Social Activity, Belonging, and Well-Being.

Dysfunctional social behavior has been implicated in the experience of depression. People with greater depressive symptoms report more frequent negative social interactions and react more strongly to them. It remains unknown, however, whether reaction strength differs depending on whether social interactions are positive or negative.

The Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II: Development, Factor Structure, and Psychometrics.

Given curiosity's fundamental role in motivation, learning, and well-being, we sought to refine the measurement of trait curiosity with an improved version of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory (CEI; Kashdan, Rose, & Fincham, 2004). A preliminary pool of 36 items was administered to 311 undergraduate students, who also completed measures of emotion, emotion regulation, personality, and well-being. Factor analyses indicated a two factor model-motivation to seek out knowledge and new experiences (Stretching; 5 items) and a willingness to embrace the novel, uncertain, and unpredictable nature of everyday life (Embracing; 5 items).

Posttraumatic stress disorder, guilt, depression, and meaning in life among military veterans.

Veterans of various service eras (N = 174) completed an Internet survey about combat exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depression, guilt, and meaning in life. Results of a hierarchical regression indicated that younger age; higher levels of combat exposure, depression, and guilt; and lower meaning in life predicted greater PTSD severity. The interaction between meaning in life and depression also was significant, with a stronger inverse relation between meaning and PTSD at lower levels of depression.