Kassenberg, Erik (2024) Have You Found What You Are Looking For? Relating the Search for and Presence of Meaning in Life to Depression and Anxiety. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Globally, it is estimated that 5% of adults currently suffer from depression, and 4% of people currently experience an anxiety disorder. These disorders have the highest disease burden of nearly all of the most common mental health disorders. Several studies have found a negative association between meaning in life and anxiety, and depression symptoms. Few studies have investigated the relationship between these symptoms and the search for meaning in life and the presence of meaning in life. No study has investigated this in a representative sample. This correlational study investigates whether the search for and the presence of meaning in life are independently associated with anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and the comorbidity of anxiety and depression symptoms in a representative sample (n = 1511). The bivariate correlations show that there is a statistically significant strong to moderate negative association between the presence of meaning in life anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and their comorbidity, and a weak positive association between the search for meaning in life and those variables. This means that the negative association between meaning in life and anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms found by other research, is driven by the absence of meaning in life rather than a lack of search for meaning in life. This study should therefore inform future research into how interventions in the experienced presence of meaning in life might alleviate anxiety and depression symptoms.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Jong, Peter de |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Clinical Psychology (CP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Jul 2024 13:22 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Jul 2024 13:22 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3810 |
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