TY - JOUR
T1 - On the conflation of purpose and meaning in life
T2 - A qualitative study of high school and college student conceptions
AU - Ratner, Kaylin
AU - Burrow, Anthony L.
AU - Burd, Kayla A.
AU - Hill, Patrick L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part through the Martha E. Foulk Fellowship Fund from the Cornell University College of Human Ecology. We also acknowledge support from the Cornell University Program for Research on Youth Development and Engagement (PRYDE), funded by a gift from Rebecca Q. Morgan. Raw participant responses available upon request. Codebooks, analysis script, and registration materials can be found via our repository, https://osf.io/x9q6n/. We would like to acknowledge our colleague, Dr. Janis Whitlock, for her role during data collection.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - A minimal amount of information is known about how adolescents and emerging adults construe purpose and meaning in life, leaving many researchers to assume youth think about these constructs consistent with scientific understandings. In this preregistered study, we compared adolescent and emerging adult conceptions of purpose and meaning using directed content analysis. High school and college students were randomly assigned to write about purpose, meaning, or a control topic. Themes mentioned within the written samples did not significantly differ across purpose and meaning conditions, and this pattern did not significantly vary between adolescents and emerging adults. However, many who wrote about meaning mentioned purpose explicitly, suggesting nuanced differentiation. These findings can inform how purpose and meaning are studied and the development of future interventions.
AB - A minimal amount of information is known about how adolescents and emerging adults construe purpose and meaning in life, leaving many researchers to assume youth think about these constructs consistent with scientific understandings. In this preregistered study, we compared adolescent and emerging adult conceptions of purpose and meaning using directed content analysis. High school and college students were randomly assigned to write about purpose, meaning, or a control topic. Themes mentioned within the written samples did not significantly differ across purpose and meaning conditions, and this pattern did not significantly vary between adolescents and emerging adults. However, many who wrote about meaning mentioned purpose explicitly, suggesting nuanced differentiation. These findings can inform how purpose and meaning are studied and the development of future interventions.
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U2 - 10.1080/10888691.2019.1659140
DO - 10.1080/10888691.2019.1659140
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85073818438
SN - 1088-8691
VL - 25
SP - 364
EP - 384
JO - Applied Developmental Science
JF - Applied Developmental Science
IS - 4
ER -