engleski

The congruence between meaning and goals and its relationship to well-being in different life domains: A cross-country exploration

Background: People invest significant effort and time in pursuing personally important and meaningful goals. Meaning has also been defined as goal directedness or purposefulness, because it comes from pursuing personally important goals. The eudaimonic perspective posits that goals associated with meaning contribute to well- being. Aim: The aim of the present study was to examine the congruence of most important goals with what is perceived as meaningful in life for three life domains (family, work and interpersonal relationships), and to found out whether the alignment between goals and meaning is related to well-being. Method: The sample consisted of 648 participants from three countries (Italy, Croatia and South Africa), with a mean age of 44.1 years. Participants were asked to list three most important future goals and three most meaningful things in their present life. In addition, they rated meaningfulness across life domains and completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale, PANAS and Mental Health Continuum. Results: The highest congruence between goals and meaning was found for family. In work domain, participants were equally distributed across four congruence groups. Whereas interpersonal relationships were perceived as meaningful things, they were sparsely listed as goals. Participants with congruent goals and meaning experienced higher level of meaningfulness in the specific domain. Furthermore, the alignment of goals and meaning or attributing meaning to family was linked with higher life satisfaction. Some country differences were found in the alignment of goals and meaning and its association with well-being. Generally, the most prominent differences were observed in well-being of participants who did not set goals or attributed meaning to specific life domain, with Italian participants showing lower well-being than Croats and South Africans. Differences in the goal-meaning congruence associated with demographic variables were found. Males are more likely to achieve congruence between goals and meaning related to work. Married participants and those having children are more prone to achieve congruence between goals and meaning linked with family and work. Conclusions: The findings confirmed that the experience of meaning is important for well- being. Although the alignment between goals and meaning is beneficial for well-being, it also depends on the life domain. Whereas such alignment is important for family and work, interpersonal relationships are rarely set as a goal. Demographic and cultural factors may constrain the process of aligning goals with meanings.

Goals, meaning, correspondence, well-being

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