Loneliness,the search for meaning,and the psychological well-being of economically disadvantaged Chinese adolescents living in Hong Kong: Implications for life skills development programs |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Unit for Mental Health Promotion, Research Center for Social Science & Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Japan;2. Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University, United States of America;3. Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Japan;4. Department of Psychology, Ube Frontier University, Japan;5. Schizophrenia Research Project, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan;6. Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Japan;7. Graduate School of Medicine, Teikyo University, Japan;8. School of Advanced Science, SOKENDAI (Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Japan;9. The International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), University of Tokyo Institutes of Advanced Study (UTIAS), Japan;1. The University of Iowa, United States;2. Yonsei University, Republic of Korea |
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| Abstract: | Assuming a relational basis of meaning-making, we examined ways in which the search for meaning and loneliness relate to the psychological well-being of economically disadvantaged adolescents. Using a survey with a sample of 366 economically disadvantaged adolescents and 304 non-economically disadvantaged adolescents recruited from 10 schools in Hong Kong, we observed that the search for meaning had a positive association with self-esteem, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction only among economically disadvantaged adolescents, whereas loneliness had a negative association with those indicators of psychological well-being in the entire sample. We also identified an interaction effect between the search for meaning and loneliness on life satisfaction among economically disadvantaged adolescents. Our results partially supported our hypotheses by showing that loneliness and the search for meaning jointly affected the development of economically disadvantaged adolescents, whereas loneliness was a more significant predictor than the search for meaning. Given such functions of the search for meaning and sense of belongingness in the development of young people amid economic hardship, practitioners and educators should initiate meaning- and relationship-oriented life skills programs in the formal and non-formal learning contexts, as well as facilitate young people's search for meaning in the informal learning context. |
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