Making sense of "making sense": Exploring the relationship between dimensions of rumination and dimensions of meaning in life
The dominant trend in previous research was that rumination is maladaptive, but recent reiterations of the construct argue that it can be adaptive. The positive and negative mental health outcomes of rumination remain inconsistent across literature, but rumination has been indicated to contribute to...
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| Summary: | The dominant trend in previous research was that rumination is maladaptive, but recent reiterations of the construct argue that it can be adaptive. The positive and negative mental health outcomes of rumination remain inconsistent across literature, but rumination has been indicated to contribute to generating meanings. The present study explores the nature of the relationship between rumination and meaning in life through the canonical correlation analysis of maladaptive/adaptive and context-free/event-related forms of rumination and the process and outcome aspects of meaning in life. Surveys were distributed to a non-specific sample of emerging adults through social media platforms (e.g., Messenger, Facebook, Telegram, etc.). Through canonical correlation analysis, two roots were formed representing the relationship between the multiple facets of rumination and the multiple facets of meaning in life. Results showed that (a) overall: rumination and meaning in life are positively related across all roots, that (b) for the first root: context-free forms of rumination have significant but varying associations with output aspects of meaning in life, and that (c) for the second root: adaptive forms of rumination have significant and positive associations with the process aspects of meaning in life. From these associations, pairings between forms of rumination and aspects of meaning in life are established and interpreted. These findings suggest that various forms of rumination function differently in relation to various aspects of meaning in life, and that these different functions can have important implications for the assessment and management of rumination and meaning in life for empirical research and clinical practice. Future research is thus encouraged to account for the importance of distinguishing these variations when examining their influence and potential outcomes in psychological health. |
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