Meaning in life across the life span: Levels and correlates of meaning in life from emerging adulthood to older adulthood

TLDR

Meaning in life is considered important for well‑being across the human lifespan. The authors examined the structure, levels, and correlates of both the presence of meaning in life and the search for meaning across emerging adulthood, young adulthood, middle‑age adulthood, and older adulthood. The meaning measure was found to be structurally invariant across life stages; later stages reported higher presence of meaning while earlier stages reported more searching, and presence of meaning related similarly to well‑being across stages whereas searching was more strongly linked to well‑being deficits in later life. Keywords include meaning in life, purpose in life, existential meaning, well‑being, life span, and adult development; acknowledgements thank Martin Seligman, Patty Newbold, Peter Schulman, and Erica Adams.

Abstract

Abstract Meaning in life is thought to be important to well-being throughout the human life span. We assessed the structure, levels, and correlates of the presence of meaning in life, and the search for meaning, within four life stage groups: emerging adulthood, young adulthood, middle-age adulthood, and older adulthood. Results from a sample of Internet users (N = 8756) demonstrated the structural invariance of the meaning measure used across life stages. Those at later life stages generally reported a greater presence of meaning in their lives, whereas those at earlier life stages reported higher levels of searching for meaning. Correlations revealed that the presence of meaning has similar relations to well-being across life stages, whereas searching for meaning is more strongly associated with well-being deficits at later life stages. Keywords: meaning in lifepurpose in lifeexistential meaningwell-being across the life spanadult development Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Martin Seligman for allowing the collection and use of these data, to Patty Newbold and Peter Schulman for website and database management and coordination, and to Erica Adams for her help preparing this manuscript.