Why dispositional awe promotes psychosocial flourishing? An investigation of intrapersonal and interpersonal pathways among Chinese emerging adults

Abstract

Promoting the psychosocial flourishing of emerging adults is crucially important. The tendency to feel awe, as captured by dispositional awe, may be a protective factor that promotes psychosocial flourishing. Inspired by the broaden-and-build theory, the present study sought to investigate the underexplored relationship between dispositional awe and psychosocial flourishing among emerging adults by establishing a dual-mediated model, which focuses on an intrapersonal mechanism of meaning in life and an interpersonal mechanism of social connectedness. Data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of 1213 Chinese emerging adults who completed a series of anonymous questionnaires regarding dispositional awe, psychosocial flourishing, meaning in life, and social connectedness. Results of the correlation analysis revealed positive and significant associations among dispositional awe, meaning in life, social connectedness, and psychosocial flourishing. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that meaning in life and social connectedness fully mediated the association between dispositional awe and psychosocial flourishing. The mediation effect of meaning in life was stronger than that of social connectedness. These findings contributes to the science of flourishing by identifying the internal mechanisms of why dispositional awe promotes the psychosocial flourishing of emerging adults.