Meaning in life, psychological hardiness and death anxiety: individuals with or without generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Predictors of preparedness for well-dying among middle-aged and older adults

BACKGROUND

This study investigated psychosocial factors related to preparedness for well-dying among middle-aged and older adults and verified a model that can predict it along with psychosocial factors and demographic profiles to provide useful information for intervention.

METHODS

The participants were 340 middle-aged and older Korean adults aged 40-79 years. The predictive models were verified using stepwise regression and decision tree analyses.

RESULTS

The results revealed that personality, meaning of life, hardiness, intrinsic religiosity, death anxiety, family support, subjective well-being, and expectations for future life were significantly correlated with preparedness for well-dying among middle-aged and older adults. A stepwise regression analysis revealed that meaning of life accounted for the greatest variance in preparedness for well-dying. A decision tree model predicting preparedness for well-dying included search for meaning, the presence of a spouse, family support, having a job, tenacity, conscientiousness, and positive emotions.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that search for meaning and tenacity in middle-aged and older adults as well as the presence of a spouse or occupation and family support may play important roles in preparing for well-dying.

An interactive online educational environment to reduce anxiety, improve emotional well-being, and critical thinking for college students

Interactive education can reduce anxiety among students by creating a supportive and supportive learning environment. This approach can also stimulate critical thinking, as it requires active student participation in debates, analysis, and discussions. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of interactive learning on Zoom on the anxiety, emotional well-being, and critical thinking of college students. The experiment involved 80 college students between 18 and 21 years of age. The research was performed by scientists from the [Zhengzhou University of Technology] University. To analyze the impact of the proposed strategy on emotional and cognitive well-being, the study used a set of questionnaires, namely Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, WAM (Well-being Assessment Measure), and Subjective Questionnaire for assessing critical thinking. The obtained results confirm the effectiveness of the interactive learning methodology, which significantly reduced anxiety and increased the level of critical thinking among students. Anxiety decreased by 14 points, and critical thinking improved by 2.5 points, indicating positive dynamics of psychological and cognitive development. Despite the positive results, some contextual factors such as the level of the learning environment, cultural characteristics, and the personalities of students can influence the generalization of the findings. These findings can have practical application in the pedagogical practice of creating a favorable learning environment. Future research may focus on improving the methodology of interactive learning, studying its impact on other aspects of learning and development. It is also necessary to explore the use of interactive learning in various cultural and educational contexts.

Hardiness and Zoom Fatigue on Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Indonesia During Online Learning

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic caused a change in learning methods to online learning. Zoom fatigue is a problem that many students experience during online learning. Zoom fatigue has an impact on physical and psychological problems so that it disrupts the online learning process. Hardiness is needed by students in order to adapt to online learning.

Aim

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between hardiness and zoom fatigue in nursing students at Universitas Padjadjaran.

Methods

This study used a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional study design. The sample technique used total sampling. Respondents were 480 nursing students at Universitas Padjadjaran. The research instrument used the Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale questionnaire and the Hardiness Instrument for the Online Learning.

Results

This study shows that almost half of the respondents have a medium hardiness level category (45%) and a zoom level of medium fatigue category (46.67%). The results of the analysis show that there is a significant negative relationship between hardiness and zoom fatigue in nursing students at Universitas Padjadjaran. The higher the student's hardiness level, the lower the student's zoom fatigue level. High hardiness can increase focus during the learning process, increase student participation, and reduce stress and fatigue in students during online learning.

Conclusion

Lecturers and students need to collaborate to improve the learning process and repeat mental health problems during online learning. This data forms the basis for university and school nurses in providing interventions for nursing students to reduce the problem of zoom fatigue.

Depression and death anxiety among patients undergoing hemodialysis during the COVID-19 pandemic in Palestine: a cross sectional study

Background

Hemodialysis patients are vulnerable to serious complications such as prolonged hospital stay and psychosocial issues like depression and death anxiety. Studies on psychosocial factors on end-stage renal disease patients' outcomes during COVID-19 pandemic are limited. We aimed to determine the prevalence of depression and death anxiety among Palestinian hemodialysis patients and the evaluate the relationship between their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics during COVID-19 Pandemic.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted using a convenience sampling technique. We recruited 308 hemodialysis patients from five hemodialysis units located in government hospitals in Palestine. Beck Depression Inventory and the Templers Death Anxiety Scale were used to collect data, which were then analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and means), t-test, ANOVA and multiple linear regression models were used for data analysis.

Results

Nearly 66.2% of the sample had depression symptoms, 61.4% met the diagnostic threshold for depression, and 69.8% had death anxiety. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis revealed that having a female identity, residing in a city or refugee camp, and patients who reported not experiencing depression had a significant relationship with death anxiety, while having a higher educational level than 12 years, having one or more chronic co-morbidities, and patients who reported experiencing death anxiety had a significant correlation with depression.

Conclusion

Patients receiving hemodialysis frequently experience depression and death anxiety. These patients should receive a psychiatric evaluation in the early stages of their illness so that timely and appropriate psychological interventions can be given in hemodialysis facilities in Palestine during and after future pandemics.

A pathway to greater meaning in life and well-being for senior executives beset by anti-meaning

Introduction

Although work is a significant source of meaning for most people, the role of senior executive generates different meaning and well-being complexities than those experienced or faced by general employees. This study explored how meaning and anti-meaning components affect senior executives' experiences of meaning in life and well-being. The findings enabled devising a pathway to enhance senior executives' net experiences of meaning in life and well-being.

Methods

A cross-sectional, semi-structured interview study design was used to gather rich qualitative data. Eight participants from southern and eastern Africa, who had held the position of chief executive officer or managing director for at least five years, were interviewed.

Results

The findings demonstrated that senior executives' work roles provide a significant source of meaning. However, the roles are accompanied by unavoidable anti-meanings, which are likely to generate additional anti-meanings if not tempered sufficiently, thus reducing the net meaning experienced.

Discussion

From the findings, a practical pathway was devised to assist top executives to deal with the bipolar relationship between meaning and anti-meaning. Consulting and counseling practitioners can utilize the pathway to guide, support, and counsel senior executives towards improved meaning, temper anti-meaning and improve well-being.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Death Anxiety During COVID-19 Pandemic

This systematic review was conducted to estimate the pooled score of death anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. All eligible articles from January 2020 to May 2022 reporting the death anxiety score were included in the analysis b.y searching the Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and ISI databases. The standard score of death anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic was 50%. The highest score of death anxiety was related to patients with COVID-19 (59.4%), other chronic patients (58.9%), and the elderly (56.4%). The lowest death anxiety score was related to the general population (42.9%) and health care workers (48.2%). The death anxiety score in the studies whose data was collected in 2020 and 2021 was 51% and 62%, respectively. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people experienced high death anxiety, which had terrible effects on their lives. Therefore, it seems necessary to provide training courses to deal with death anxiety for other possible pandemics.

Meaning in life, meaning-making and posttraumatic growth in cancer patients: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to assess the association between meaning in life (MiL), meaning-making and posttraumatic growth (PTG) in the context of cancer.

Methods

A systematic search was conducted in eighteen electronic databases. The screening and selection process followed the PRISMA guidelines. For the purpose of the meta-analysis, the correlation coefficients between meaning in life and posttraumatic growth were extracted from the included studies. The effect size (r) was calculated using the restricted maximum-likelihood estimator, a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed through the Q statistic, I² index and forest plot, while publication bias was analyzed with the use of the funnel plot and Egger's test.

Results

889 records were considered according to the inclusion criteria. A total of nine articles, published between 2006 and 2021, were included in the systematic review. More than half were published in the last five years. The sample was mostly diagnosed with breast cancer. The meta-analysis included five articles (N = 844) and the results indicate a significant moderate correlation between meaning in life and posttraumatic growth (r = 0.43, 95% IC [0.36, 0.50]).

Discussion

In conclusion, there is a clear association between meaning in life and posttraumatic growth in cancer patients. Future research should explore this relationship further, in order to better assist and guide meaning centered interventions that can potentiate a positive adjustment and possibly growth from the cancer experience.

The relationship between anxiety and depression under the pandemic: The role of life meaning

Introduction

COVID-19 is a stressor creating much anxiety for the general public, such as anxiety related to possible infection, social distancing, financial strain and uncertainty. As the scientific literature shows that there is an intimate relationship between anxiety and depression, it is important to ask whether anxiety is related to depression under the pandemic and whether spirituality indexed by life meaning can moderate the relationship between anxiety and depression. According to theories highlighting the importance of life meaning, relative to people with a higher level of life meaning, the relationship between anxiety and depression would be stronger in people with a lower level of life meaning.

Methods

Empirically, we collected data in two waves (i.e., before and after the first wave of COVID-19, respectively) from 4,981 adolescents recruited in Sichuan, China. Then, the 41-item "Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders" was employed to measure anxiety symptoms, 20-item "Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale" was utilized to examine depression symptoms, and the "Spirituality Subscale of the Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale" for assessing life meaning.

Results

We found that anxiety significantly predicted depression at each wave and across time. Second, controlling for Wave 1 depression scores, results showed that a drop in Wave 1 anxiety predicted a drop in depressive symptoms over time. Regarding the relationship between meaning in life and depression, spirituality indexed by meaning in life negatively predicted depression at each wave and over time, and predicted change in depression across time. Finally, multiple regression analyses showed that life meaning moderated the predictive effect of anxiety on depression.

Discussion

The findings support the thesis that spirituality serves as a protective factor for psychological morbidity in Chinese adolescents. The study also suggests the importance of helping adolescents to develop life meaning under COVID-19.

Relationship Between Hardiness and Social Anxiety in Chinese Impoverished College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Moderation by Perceived Social Support and Gender

During the COVID-19 epidemic, quarantine and financial disadvantages might exacerbate social anxiety among impoverished college students. Based on the hardiness model and the social support buffering model, the present study proposed and verified a dual moderation model to investigate the effects of hardiness on social anxiety and the moderating roles of gender and perceived social support. The hardiness scale, the perceived social support scale, and the social anxiety subscale of the self-consciousness scale were administered to 673 Chinese college students aged 18 to 23 years who were recognized as impoverished by the Chinese authorities and provided with funding. The results revealed that (1) hardiness had a significant negative effect on social anxiety, (2) perceived social support moderated the effect of hardiness on social anxiety, and (3) gender moderated the effect of hardiness on social anxiety. The dual moderated model proposed in the study provides practical implications for helping impoverished college students cope with social anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anxiety and Depression in a Non-Clinical Sample of Young Polish Adults: Presence of Meaning in Life as a Mediator

Early adulthood, between 18 and 25, is viewed as a decisive period of life for the prevention and treatment of anxiety and depression. Although the topic of their mutual relationship is well-known, little has been uncovered about the mechanism underlying this connection. To understand the indirect pathways between anxiety and depression, we chose the sense of meaning of life as a mediator because people's beliefs that their lives are or can be purposeful may protect against depression. The sample was composed of 277 Polish young adults. A small majority of the participants were women (58.8%). The mean age was M = 22.11 (SD = 1.72). We used in the research the Direct Behavior Rating-Scale Items Scale, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and the Brief Screen for Depression. Correlational analysis showed that, consistent with past findings, anxiety correlated positively with depression and searching for meaning. It was also negatively associated with presence of meaning. Moreover, depression was negatively linked to presence of meaning and positively with searching for meaning. Regression-based mediation analyses (PROCESS macro 3.4) proved that the relationship between anxiety and depression was mediated by presence of meaning in life, suggesting that having a sense of meaning may be a pathway by which feelings of tension relative to adverse events protect against depression.