Purpose maintained : adverse childhood experiences and meaning in life
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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with poor functioning in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Six studies examined the relationship between ACEs and meaning in life, focusing on the facets of meaning in life--coherence, significance, and purpose. Studies 1 (N = 1138 undergraduates), 2 (N = 705 undergraduates), and 3 (N = 822 noncollege adults) showed that ACEs were negatively related to coherence and significance (controlling for the other two facets) but unrelated to purpose, controlling for significance and coherence, childhood social support (Study 2), and attachment style and neuroticism (Study 3). In all three studies the relationship between ACEs and purpose was fully explained by coherence and significance, even when facet ratings were made with regard to participants' most salient negative childhood experience (Study 3). In a within-person experiment (Study 4; N = 380) participants wrote about positive and negative experiences from childhood and rated the facets of meaning immediately after each writing task. A predicted 3-way interaction showed that after recalling a negative childhood memory, ACEs predicted lower significance and coherence but higher purpose. To test the resilience of these findings in a different timeframe, participants wrote about their best possible future self and their worst possible future self (Study 5; N = 797) or their Plan B self (Study 6; N = 346) and then completed ratings of their facets of meaning in life. When primed to think about a negative future outcome, purpose decreased, particularly among those with high ACEs. ACEs also related to viewing one's best possible future as less likely (Studies 5 and 6) and one's worst possible scenario (Study 5) or Plan B (Study 6) as more likely. Implications for the role of ACEs in adult functioning and the science of meaning in life are discussed.
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M.A.