Only some attempts at meaning making are successful: The role of change-relatedness and positive implications for the self

Abstract

Objective: Although meaning making and specifically autobiographical reasoning are expected to relate to well-being, findings tend to be mixed. Attempts at meaning making do not always lead to meaning made. We aimed to disentangle these complex relationships and also explore the role of level of education. Method: Ninety participants (mean age 36.73 years, SD = 7.27; 74.4% women, 25.6% men) who had experienced the loss of a parent through death, going missing, or Alzheimer's disease narrated this loss, a sad, a turning point, and a self-defining memory, and completed questionnaires assessing depression, trauma symptoms, and protracted grief. Three aspects of autobiographical reasoning (quantity, valence, and change-relatedness of self-event connections) were related to meaning made (sophistication of meaning making) and symptom level. Results: Years of education correlated both with positive implications of autobiographical reasoning and with meaning made. The quantity, positivity, and change-relatedness of attempts at meaning making (self-event connections) predicted accomplished meaning made, and positivity alone predicted less prolonged grief. Conclusions: Adapting the life story after a loss such that change of the self is acknowledged and positive change can be constructed helps finding meaning and lowering protracted grief. These changes in narrative identity are supported by more years of education.