We argue that meaningfulness is a better and more sustainable way of measuring wellbeing
Why do we focus on Meaningfulness?
We are living in the greatest paradox of our time. We have never had more opportunities in life. Yet, we have never been lonelier, nor more depressed, anxious and stressed.
Simultaneously, psychologists are increasingly recognizing the role of meaning in life for positive development, including in children and adolescents.
A higher level of meaningfulness is associated with*:
Lower levels of sustance abuse
Lower likelihood of experiencing suicidal ideation and attempts
Lower levels of social and emotional difficulties
Higher levels of health maintenance
Higher life satisfaction
Higher positive emotions
This is why we believe meaningfulness is a better metric to measure human wellbeing. Nevertheless, the study of meaningfulness in children and youth is still relatively unexplored.
The YMI represents a paradigm shift in how we evaluate wellbeing in the youth population The YMI provides a comprehensive understanding of the human experience that extends beyond satisfaction and happiness.
*Shoshani-Anat, Russo-Netzer. (2017). Exploring and assessing meaning in life in elementary school children: Development and validation of the meaning in life in children questionnaire (MIL-CQ). Personality and Individual Differences. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.09.014
“Man’s search for meaning is a primary force in his life and not a “secondary rationalization” of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning.”
Viktor Frankel, Austrian psychiatrist, holocaust survivor, and founder of logotherapy
– a type of therapy focusing on an individual’s search for meaning