Engaging in personally meaningful activities is associated with meaning salience and psychological well-being

ABSTRACT

Engagement in personally meaningful activities is associated with greater well-being. However, most studies use cross-sectional or recall methods, and the researchers pre-determine which activities are ‘meaningful.’ This study examined an idiographic measure of meaningful activity participation in relation to well-being. Participants (N = 160; M age = 43.3 years; 77% female) rated the meaningfulness of 46 daily activities at baseline and reported their activities on eight random days over the next 4 weeks. Half the participants also completed measures of meaning salience and mood on the same days. All participants reported on psychological well-being at baseline and 4-week follow-up. Meaningful activity participation was positively associated with meaning salience and positive mood. Average engagement in meaningful activities over 8 days was positively associated with subjective vitality, life satisfaction, and purpose in life at follow-up. An idiographic measure of meaningful activity participation may further be understanding of the relationship between meaningful activity participation and well-being.

Abbreviations: ACT - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; LET - Life Engagement Test; MALM - Meaningful Activity and Life Meaning; MAPA - Meaningful Activities Participation Assessment; PANAS - Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; PHQ-8 - Patient Health Questionnaire-8; SDT - Self-determination Theory; SVS - Subjective Vitality Scale; SWLS - Satisfaction with Life Scale; TOMS - Thoughts of Meaning Scale

KEYWORDS:

• Meaning in life
• daily activities
• values
• well-being
• idiographic assessment

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Kaylae Nakamura and Jean Wood for their assistance with data collection.

This research was supported by the American Heart Association Southwest Affiliate Predoctoral Fellowship (Grant Number: 14PRE18710033) to Stephanie A. Hooker.

Declarations of Interest Statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the American Heart Association Southwest Affiliate Predoctoral Fellowship [14PRE18710033].