Exploring meaning in life through a brief photo-ethnographic intervention using Instagram: a Bayesian growth modelling approach

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of the participants (n = 53).

Item	Category	Frequency	Percentage (%)
Gender	Male	10	17.2
	Female	48	82.2
Age	19–25 years	4	6.9
	26–30 years	11	19.0
	31–40 years	24	41.4
	41 and older	19	32.8
Nationality	European	23	39.7
	South African	29	47.2
	American	3	5.2
	Other	3	5.2
Marital status	Single	15	25.9
	Living together	13	22.4
	Married	26	44.8
	Divorced	3	5.2
	Widowed	1	1.7
Native Language	English	15	25.9
	Dutch	16	27.6
	German	2	3.4
	Afrikaans	21	36.2
	Other	4	6.9
Highest level of Education	High School/GED	3	5.2
	Some College	4	6.9
	Bachelor’s Degree	19	32.8
	Master’s Degree	25	43.1
	Ph.D.	7	12.1
Employment Status	Full Time	40	69.0
	Part Time	12	20.7
	Full Time Student	4	6.9
	Unemployed	1	1.7
	Retired	1	1.7
Pictures Taken/Posted	1–3 Photos	6	10.3
	4–5 Photos	13	22.4
	6–7 Photos	39	67.2

Figure 1. Study design flowchart.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics, and Cronbach Alphas.

	Range	Mean	SD	Skewness	Kurtosis	α
Meaning in Life
Search for Meaning (Pre)	1–7	4.90	1.02	−0.50	−0.13	0.72
Search for Meaning (Post)	1–7	6.28	0.55	−0.54	−0.79	0.71
Search for Meaning (3 Months)	1–7	5.06	1.02	−0.32	−0.07	0.71
Search for Meaning (1 Year)	1–7	5.06	1.20	−0.41	−0.35	0.79
Presence of Meaning (Pre)	1–7	4.64	1.30	−0.28	−0.90	0.88
Presence of Meaning (Post)	1–7	6.14	0.78	−0.63	−0.70	0.81
Presence of Meaning (3 Months)	1–7	5.28	1.23	−0.90	1.02	0.94
Presence of Meaning (1 Year)	1–7	5.35	1.12	−1.40	2.42	0.88
Gratitude
Simple Appreciation (Pre)	1–9	7.54	1.00	−0.45	0.55	0.76
Simple Appreciation (Post)	1–9	8.43	0.61	−1.22	0.82	0.78
Simple Appreciation (3 Months)	1–9	7.72	1.21	−1.71	3.69	0.85
Simple Appreciation (1 Year)	1–9	7.71	1.06	−0.84	0.62	0.78
Appreciation of Others (Pre)	1–9	6.94	1.29	−0.43	0.21	0.72
Appreciation of Others (Post)	1–9	8.16	0.68	−0.95	0.92	0.71
Appreciation of Others (3 Months)	1–9	7.44	1.13	−0.53	−0.38	0.82
Appreciation of Others (1 Year)	1–9	7.86	0.90	−1.82	6.70	0.82
Lack of a Sense of Deprivation (Pre)	1–9	6.66	1.63	−0.30	−1.10	0.86
Lack of a Sense of Deprivation (Post)	1–9	7.78	1.19	−1.82	6.13	0.88
Lack of a Sense of Deprivation (3 Months)	1–9	7.13	1.37	−0.43	−0.75	0.87
Lack of a Sense of Deprivation (1 Year)	1–9	6.54	1.91	−0.40	−1.23	0.89
Common Mental Health Problems
Stress (Pre)	0–3	2.05	0.64	0.70	0.12	0.86
Stress (Post)	0–3	1.28	0.36	1.31	1.02	0.78
Stress (3 Months)	0–3	1.77	0.71	1.11	0.77	0.90
Stress (1 Year)	0–3	1.84	0.59	0.75	0.39	0.85
Depression (Pre)	0–3	1.63	0.63	1.15	0.52	0.92
Depression (Post)	0–3	1.14	0.25	1.94	2.95	0.83
Depression (3 Months)	0–3	1.50	0.64	1.49	1.51	0.91
Depression (1 Year)	0–3	1.41	0.42	1.21	1.24	0.87
Anxiety (Pre)	0–3	1.47	0.47	1.90	5.98	0.75
Anxiety (Post)	0–3	1.11	0.20	2.95	9.91	0.70
Anxiety (3 Months)	0–3	1.30	0.54	2.75	7.91	0.86
Anxiety (1 Year)	0–3	1.44	0.50	1.19	0.48	0.81
Life Satisfaction
Satisfaction with Life (Pre)	1–7	4.79	1.29	−0.48	−0.90	0.88
Satisfaction with Life (Post)	1–7	6.20	0.86	−1.15	0.43	0.92
Satisfaction with Life (3 Months)	1–7	5.23	1.17	−0.52	−0.66	0.90
Satisfaction with Life (1 Year)	1–7	5.37	1.19	−1.22	1.23	0.96

Table 3. Bayesian latent growth model fit statistics.

Model	Posterior predictive p-value	RMSEA	CFI	DIC	BIC	90% CI RMSEA
						LL	UL
Meaning in Life
Presence of meaning	0.07	0.18	0.90	615.68	641.77	0.11	0.26
Search for meaning	0.11	0.16	0.85	575.30	601.45	0.07	0.26
Gratitude
Simple appreciation	0.08	0.18	0.86	578.12	604.04	0.11	0.26
Appreciation of others	0.05	0.19	0.80	607.82	634.25	0.13	0.26
Lack of deprivation	0.50	0.00	1.00	764.93	790.78	0.00	0.18
Common Mental Health Problems
Stress	<0.01	0.31	0.53	360.18	386.67	0.27	0.37
Depression	0.01	0.24	0.66	265.09	292.11	0.19	0.30
Anxiety	0.35	0.08	0.96	198.10	215.41	0.00	0.20
Life Satisfaction
Satisfaction with life	<0.01	0.28	0.74	647.19	674.19	0.24	0.34

Δχ²: Difference between χ² for data replicated given the posterior and the observed data; RMSEA: Root Mean Square Error of Approximation Index; DIC: Deviance information criterion; BIC: Bayesian Information Criterion; CI: Credibility Interval; LL: Lower Limit; UL: Upper Limit.

Figure 2. Predicted means for Satisfaction with Life, and Meaning in Life.

Figure 3. Estimated means for Gratitude with Default Priors.

Figure 4. Predicted means for Stress, Depression and Anxiety.

Table 4. Bayesian latent growth changes and effect sizes with Steger et al.’s (2014) priors.

	Δ0 m			Δ3 m			Δ12 m
	M	99% CI	d	M	99% CI	d	M	99% CI	d
Meaning in Life
Presence of Meaning	1.45	[1.14, 1.76]	2.58	0.63	[0.28, 1.01]	1.02	0.78	[0.36, 1.21]	1.51
Search for Meaning	1.26	[0.97, 1.52]	3.34	0.12	[−0.30, 0.52]	0.31	0.07	[−0.39, 0.51]	0.19
Gratitude
Simple Appreciation	0.87	[0.57, 1.15]	2.05	0.14	[−0.27, 0.54]	0.31	0.22	[−0.19, 0.63]	0.49
Appreciation of Others	1.19	[0.81, 1.55]	1.54	0.59	[0.21, 0.99]	0.81	1.08	[0.67, 1.54]	1.72
Lack of a Sense of Deprivation	1.08	[0.56, 1.61]	1.12	0.51	[0.13, 0.93]	0.56	−0.03	[−0.49, 0.42]	−0.04
Common Mental Health Problems
Stress	−0.69	[−0.88, −0.47]	−1.99	−0.22	[−0.44, 0.03]	−0.34	−0.26	[−0.52, 0.04]	−0.48
Depression	−0.46	[−0.63, −0.29]	−1.20	−0.17	[−0.38, 0.04]	−0.27	−0.32	[−0.52, −0.12]	−0.45
Anxiety	−0.35	[−0.48, −0.22]	−1.89	−0.14	[−0.34, 0.04]	−0.34	−0.06	[−0.26, 0.13]	−0.16
Life Satisfaction
Satisfaction with Life	1.40	[1.06, 1.73]	2.52	0.48	[0.11, 0.85]	0.75	0.69	[0.21, 1.16]	1.50

Note. 99% CI: 99% Credible Interval; d: Cohen’s d. Bold text indicates a significant difference (α = .01) with the baseline assessment two weeks before the intervention.

Table 5. Sensitivity analysis.

Model	Posterior predictive p-value	RMSEA	CFI	DIC	BIC	90% C.I RMSEA
						LL	UL
Meaning in Life
Presence of meaning	0.07	0.18	0.90	615.68	641.60	0.11	0.26
Search for meaning	0.16	0.15	0.88	573.35	599.39	0.04	0.23
Common Mental Health Problems
Stress	<0.01	0.31	0.55	359.18	385.44	0.28	0.36
Depression	0.01	0.24	0.66	265.11	291.83	0.19	0.30
Anxiety	0.36	0.08	0.96	189.08	215.22	0.00	0.20
Life Satisfaction
Satisfaction with life	<0.01	0.29	0.73	647.88	674.20	0.25	0.34

Model fit statistics with default Mplus priors.

RMSEA: Root Mean Square Error of Approximation Index; DIC: Deviance information criterion; BIC: Bayesian Information Criterion; CI: Credibility Index; LL: Lower Limit; UL: Upper Limit.

Table 6. Bayesian Latent Growth changes with default priors.

	Δ0m			Δ3m			Δ12m
	M	99% CI	d	M	99% CI	d	M	99% CI	d
Meaning in Life
Presence of Meaning	1.49	[1.17, 1.82]	2.64	0.66	[0.30, 1.04]	1.02	0.80	[0.38, 1.25]	1.56
Search for Meaning	1.39	[1.12, 1.66]	1.88	0.22	[−0.19, 0.62]	0.53	0.16	[−0.29, 0.61]	0.44
Gratitude
Simple Appreciation	0.87	[0.57, 1.15]	2.05	0.14	[−0.27, 0.54]	0.31	0.22	[−0.19, 0.63]	0.49
Appreciation of Others	1.19	[0.81, 1.55]	1.54	0.59	[0.21, 0.99]	0.81	1.08	[0.67, 1.54]	1.72
Lack of a Sense of Deprivation	1.08	[0.56, 1.61]	1.12	0.51	[0.13, 0.93]	0.56	−0.03	[−0.49, 0.42]	−0.04
Common Mental Health Problems
Stress	−0.76	[−0.95, −0.55]	−2.19	−0.25	[−0.48, −0.02]	−0.41	−0.29	[−0.56, −0.02]	−0.55
Depression	−0.48	[−0.67, −0.31]	−1.27	−0.19	[−0.40, 0.03]	−0.29	−0.33	[−0.54, −0.13]	−0.48
Anxiety	−0.36	[−0.50, −0.23]	−1.95	−0.16	[−0.35, 0.03]	−0.37	−0.08	[−0.28, 0.12]	−0.19
Life Satisfaction
Satisfaction with Life	1.40	[1.04, 1.75]	0.75	0.48	[0.11, 0.85]	0.75	0.69	[0.21, 1.16]	1.50

Note. 99% CI: 99% Credible Interval; d: Cohen’s d. Bold text indicates a significant difference (α = .01) with the baseline assessment two weeks before the intervention.

Table 7. Model fit difference: models with Steger et al.’s priors—default priors.

Model	ΔPPp	ΔRMSEA	ΔCFI	ΔDIC	ΔBIC
Meaning in Life
Presence of meaning	−0.002	−0.00	−0.00	0.00	0.17
Search for meaning	−0.042	0.02	−0.03	1.94	2.06
Common Mental Health Problems
Stress	0.000	0.00	−0.02	1.00	1.24
Depression	0.000	−0.00	−0.00	−0.02	0.28
Anxiety	−0.006	0.00	−0.00	0.03	0.19
Life Satisfaction
Satisfaction with life	0.000	−0.00	0.00	−0.21	−0.01

PPp: Posterior predictive p-value; RMSEA: Root Mean Square Error of Approximation Index; DIC: Deviance information criterion; BIC: Bayesian Information Criterion.

Steger, M. F., Shim, Y., Barenz, J., & Shin, J. Y. (2014). Through the windows of the soul: A pilot study using photography to enhance meaning in life. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 3(1), 27–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2013.11.002

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