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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Positive Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1529851
This article is part of the Research Topic The Impact of Psychological Well-Being on University Students View all 36 articles

Stability of and Changes in Meaning in Life Profiles on Mental Health among Chinese University Students: A Latent Transition Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Sylvia YCL Kwok Sylvia YCL Kwok 1Siqi FANG Siqi FANG 1*Bella Meici HUANG Bella Meici HUANG 2Alebel Addis Tesfaw Alebel Addis Tesfaw 3Xi Deng Xi Deng 2
  • 1 City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 2 The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Region, China
  • 3 Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Research on meaning in life (MIL) has predominately adopted variable-centred approaches. The few person-centred studies conducted were generally cross-sectional in nature and have failed to address changes in MIL. Furthermore, few studies have explored the stability of and changes in MIL on wellbeing.We used latent transition analysis (LTA) to assess the MIL profiles of Chinese university students and to relate their experiences of meaning to their well-being. Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory, and the Mental Health Continuum Short Form were applied. In total, 317 students from five universities in Hong Kong participated in the survey at two time points 9 months apart.The LTA identified three distinct profiles among the participants: meaning-oriented, bewildered, and indifferent. The LTA mover-stayer model revealed the relative stability of the students' MIL profiles over 9 months. Specifically, the indifferent profile group was the most unstable, with a stability of 66.6%, suggesting that a significant portion of students in this group changed profiles. Conversely, the bewildered profile group had the greatest number of movers (64.8%), indicating a higher degree of flux within this group as well. Regarding the adaptive outcomes associated with each profile, results showed that students in the meaning-oriented profile group demonstrated the most adaptive outcomes, evidenced by the highest well-being scores and the lowest anxiety and depression scores among all the students.Chinese university students. We also identified a relatively adaptive profile. Overall, these findings have practical implications and can contribute to advancing research on mental health and meaning.

    Keywords: meaning in life, Mental Health, Anxiety, Depression, latent transition analysis

    Received: 17 Nov 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Kwok, FANG, HUANG, Addis Tesfaw and Deng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Siqi FANG, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.