Meaning in Life and Adjustment to University of College Freshmen: A Cross-Lagged Analysis

Luo Jie; Jin Tonglin; Jia Yanru; Chen Wei; Wu Yuntena; Qi Shisan

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20250320

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2025, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (3) : 724-731. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20250320

Research on Social Psychological Service in the New Era

Meaning in Life and Adjustment to University of College Freshmen: A Cross-Lagged Analysis

Luo Jie^1,2,3, Jin Tonglin², Jia Yanru², Chen Wei¹, Wu Yuntena², Qi Shisan²

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Abstract

Meaning in life is described as the sense made of and significance one makes of the nature of one’s being and existence. Previous studies have suggested that meaning in life stimulates individual growth and helps individuals’ psychological adjustment. Adjustment or adaptation is defined as a process in which individuals adapt to a given environment and a process in which individuals seek to change their environment in order to satisfy their development and needs. Considering that college freshmen are in a special stage of transiting to the university study and life, it is certain that the majority of college freshmen who are about to enter university appear to approach this transition in their lives with feelings of anticipation and stress. In the context of university, some of college freshmen are exposed to adjustment problems (e.g., academic adjustment , social adjustment , and economical adjustment ). It is obviously that good adjustment to university life not only facilitates individual university study, but also has an important effect on one’s future adult life and work.
Although prior studies have preliminarily supported the relationship between meaning in life and adjustment to university, the causal mechanism between them is not completely clear. Specifically, some of the studies have indicated that the meaning in life could predict individual adaptation, whereas others have suggested that the individual adaptation was an important predictor of meaning in life. The current study, therefore, conducted a longitudinal research design and used a cross-lagged model to further clarify the causal relationship between meaning in life and the adjustment to university of college freshmen.
The subjects for the present investigation were recruited from two undergraduate normal universities in Guizhou, China. In this in-progress longitudinal research, we aimed to seek a more particular knowledge of the correlates and causes of heterogeneity in freshman adaptation to university and psychological health. The first survey was administered at the beginning of the first semester of the freshman year in October 2018, when 505 first-year students were recruited to complete the Chinese version of Meaning in Life Questionnaire (C-MLQ) and the Freshmen Adaptation Inventory Short Form (FAI-SF). Subsequently, the second assessment was conducted in the end of the second semester of the freshman year (June 2019), with 456 of the original first-year students attending the investigation. In the final sample, college freshmen were between 16 and 23 years of age (M=19.02, SD=1.00). Additionally, the statistics analysis was performed with SPSS 22.0 and Mplus 7.0. More specifically, SPSS 22.0 was responsible for the descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product correlation analysis, and Mplus 7.0 was used for the common method bias and cross-lagged analysis.
The results of correlation analysis showed that the presence of meaning was positively associated with adjustment to university of college freshmen, both concurrently and longitudinal; whereas there was not significant correlation between search for meaning in life and adaptation of college freshmen. Furthermore, the cross-lagged analysis indicated that there was a significantly cross-lagged effect between the meaning in life of college freshmen and their adjustment to university. More specifically, both the presence of meaning and the search for meaning in life at the beginning of the first semester have a positive predictive effect on college freshmen's adjustment to university in the end of the second semester, while the adjustment of college freshmen at the beginning of the first semester could not predict the presence of meaning and the search for meaning in life at the end of the second semester.
In summary, these findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between the meaning in life of college freshmen and their adjustment to university. Particularly, the meaning in life of first-year students plays a positive role in their adjustment to university. Overall, this study clarified the causal relationship between the meaning in life and adjustment to university among college freshmen, and demonstrated the effect of meaning in life on adjustment to university among college freshmen.

Key words

college freshmen / meaning in life / adjustment to university / cross-lagged analysis

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Luo Jie, Jin Tonglin, Jia Yanru, Chen Wei, Wu Yuntena, Qi Shisan. Meaning in Life and Adjustment to University of College Freshmen: A Cross-Lagged Analysis[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2025, 48(3): 724-731 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20250320

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