Investigating Sources, Dimensions and Correlates of Meaning in Life Among High School Students

Meaning in life is one of the significant indicators of wellbeing in students. despite numerous studies that have been conducted on meaning in life, there is still an ambiguity regarding the sources of meaning among students and also the differences between girls and boys regarding the sources, dimensions and correlates of meaning in life. the present study was an attempt to investigate different aspects of meaning in life and differences between girls and boys in these components. in this descriptive study, 316 students between 15 to 17 years old (m: 16.04, std: 0.82, 56.3 % females) were recruited from secondary high schools of different areas of mashhad during 2019. participants completed a set of questionnaires which measure sources, dimensions and correlates of meaning in life. descriptive statistics, chi-square and t-test were used to analyze data. results indicate that “family” (92.7%), “social relations” (58.9%) and “occupation/work” (52.5%) are the areas that most frequently have been reported as a source of meaning. moreover, seven new categories of sources of meaning were identified in this study of which “information technology” (16.1%) and “goals and wishes” (10.8%) had the highest frequencies. female and male participants differed in the frequency of mentioning some of these sources, their satisfaction from these areas, and dimension of presence of meaning as well as different correlates of meaning in life. these findings have been discussed in the context of developmental and meaning in life theories.