The Mediating Role of Meaning in the Relationship Between Depression and Hope

Abstract

The purpose of study is to examine whether meaning mediates the correlation between depression and hope among students. Participants include 512 undergraduates sampled from a public university. After giving their consent, participants responded to a set of self-report instruments. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and path analysis were used to analyze the data. As hypothesized, findings revealed significant negative correlations between hope (agency and pathways) and meaning with depression. Furthermore, results indicate that meaning mediates the connection between depression and hope. Also, findings revealed that presence of meaning, and hope dimensions (agency and pathway thinking) indicated major predictors of depression with presence of meaning being connected with less symptoms of depression. Ostensibly, students with more depressive symptoms reflects the tendency of experiencing less presence of meaning. Furthermore, one major implication of this study is that policy makers and the management of universities need to give greater attention to including positive psychology into the curriculum for all students. Besides, as every student faces the ongoing pandemic experience, school psychologists can see more reason why hope and meaning-related interventions need to be integrated into practice.