The Implications of Meaning in Life on College Adjustment Among Chinese University Freshmen: The Indirect Effects via Academic Motivation

This research examined whether college freshmen’s sense of meaning in life predicted changes in their college adjustment over time, and whether academic motivations played indirect effects underlying these predictive effects. Chinese college freshmen (N = 1183; Mage = 18.61 years; 60% female) from eight public universities reported on their presence of meaning, search for meaning, academic motivations, as well as college adjustment in the academic, social, and emotional domains twice over six months. The more presence of meaning freshmen possessed, the greater self-determined motivation they had for academics, which predicted improved academic adjustment over time. Freshmen’s presence of meaning also predicted overtime improvement in academic, social, and emotional adjustment via less non-self-determined academic motivation. The greater tendency freshmen had to search for meaning, the greater self-determined but not non-self-determined academic motivation they had, which predicted improved academic adjustment over time. The findings highlighted the importance of cultivating students’ sense of meaning in life at the start of their college life or earlier.