BackgroundMeaning in life is a benchmark indicator of flourishing that can likely mitigate the severity of depression symptoms among persons seeking mental healthcare. However, patients contending with serious mental health difficulties often experience a painful void or absence of ultimate meaning in their lives that might hinder recovery. This two‐wave longitudinal study examined temporal associations between perceived presence of meaning in life, struggles with ultimate meaning, flourishing, and depression symptoms among adults in a spiritually integrated inpatient treatment program.MethodsOf the 242 patients assessed at intake, 90% (N = 218; 40% Cisgender male; 57% Cisgender female; 3.0% nonbinary) completed validated measures of these meaning‐related factors and mental health outcomes at discharge.ResultsCross‐sectional analyses revealed perceptions of meaning in life and ultimate meaning struggles were inversely linked with one another along with being associated with indices of positive and negative mental health in varying ways at the start and end of treatment. Drawing upon a two‐wave cross‐lagged panel design, longitudinal structural equation modeling analyses supported a Primary Meaning Model whereby having a subjective sense of meaning in life at intake was prospectively linked with lower levels of ultimate meaning struggles and greater flourishing at discharge. However, baseline levels of mental health outcomes were not predictive of the meaning‐related factors in this sample.ConclusionFindings highlight the utility of assessing patients' perceived meaning in life and ultimate meaning struggles in spiritually integrated programs and for clinicians to be prepared to possibly address these meaning‐related concerns in the treatment process.

中文翻译：

---

精神整合住院项目中生命意义、最终意义斗争和心理健康结果之间的时间关联

背景生活的意义是繁荣的基准指标，可以减轻寻求心理保健的人抑郁症状的严重程度。然而，患有严重心理健康问题的患者常常会经历痛苦的​​空虚或生活中缺乏最终意义，这可能会阻碍康复。这项双波纵向研究在精神综合住院治疗计划中检查了成年人感知到的生命意义存在、与最终意义的斗争、繁荣和抑郁症状之间的时间关联。方法在入院时评估的 242 名患者中，90%（氮= 218；40% 顺性别男性；57% 顺性别女性；3.0% 非二元）完成了对这些意义相关因素和出院时心理健康结果的验证测量。结果横断面分析显示，对生命意义的感知和最终的意义斗争彼此呈负相关，并与积极和消极指数相关在治疗开始和结束时以不同的方式关注心理健康。利用双波交叉滞后面板设计，纵向结构方程模型分析支持主要意义模型，即摄入时对生活的主观意义感与较低水平的最终意义斗争和出院时的更大繁荣前瞻性相关。然而，心理健康结果的基线水平并不能预测该样本中与意义相关的因素。结论研究结果强调了评估患者在生活中的感知意义和精神综合计划中的最终意义斗争的实用性，以及临床医生准备可能解决的问题治疗过程中这些与意义相关的问题。