Young Children's Meaning in Life

A decade ago DeVogler and Ebersole reported that young adolescents were able to express the fact that they had personal meaning in their lives. In the present study we found that even younger children (26 first graders) could do so also when personal meaning was defined to them as that which in their whole life is most important to them. The high frequency of those reporting a personal meaning goes against the position that a large percentage of individuals in our modern society lack personal meaning.

Adolescents' meaning in life: a replication of DeVogler and Ebersole (1983)

Previous studies have indicated that adolescents understand the concept of meaning in life and can apply it to their lives. In this study we examined how religious adolescents differ in their self-reports of meaning in life compared to adolescents previously studied. It is expected that adolescents in a Christian community more frequently attribute their meaning in life to beliefs than will adolescents in the non-Christian population. 81 adolescents from a religious summer camp reported commitment to a belief as their strongest personal meaning more frequently than any other category when reported in a free-response essay format, whereas no adolescents in the previous study reported belief as their strongest meaning.