Meaning Matters in Childhood

We often talk about the importance of finding meaning in adulthood, but what about childhood?

The Holocaust survivor and existential psychotherapist Viktor Frankl argued that each person has a “will to meaning”, a drive to find an overarching significance to one’s life and to find significance in one’s daily life. Modern-science has made it crystal clear that a sense of meaning is critical for adult mental health. A low sense of perceived meaning in life has been linked to depression, anxiety, and increased suicidal ideation . Meaning can also serve as a protective factor in times of stress , and meaning seems to be even more predictive of well-being in those at greater risk for mental illness.

While the scientific literature on the importance of meaning among adults is growing, there is curiously a dearth of research exploring the importance of meaning in early childhood. I think this is really unfortunate. Children are brimming with the potential to make meaning out of their new environments. Unfortunately, very few studies have explored the concept of meaning in children.

The pathways to meaning surely differ between adults and children. For adults, meaning is typically thought of as “meaning in life”, judged as a sense of purpose and a life well lived. For children, meaning in daily life involves more of a “meaning mindset.”

What is a Meaning Mindset?

According to Frankl’s “Logotherapy”, meaning comes about when (a) we have agency over thoughts and behaviors, (b) we have a positive self-concept to believe one is competent, capable of choice, and deserving of positive experience, (c) hope for a future that is good, and (d) openness to experiences, such as connecting with others, noticing feelings, engagement in passion activities, connection to nature.

Using Logotherapy as its inspiration, psychologist Laura Armstrong and her Master’s student Catherine Potter set out to measure these main components of a “meaning mindset”:

1. Agency: The subjective authorship of one’s actions. In Logotherapy, agency is closely connected to the concepts of responsibility and the capacity to choose one’s attitude under any circumstance. A sense of agency is important throughout our lifespan and contributes to our sense that the world is predictable and makes sense.

2. Hope: The perceived capacity to derive pathways to desired goals and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways. In other words, hope involves the will and ways to get there. One study of children ages 6-13 found that hopelessness was positively associated with depression, lower social skills, and lower participation in activities while negatively associated with social behavior and self-esteem.

3. Self-Esteem: A sense of self-worth and competence in things that a person deems meaningful. Since the search for meaning involves identity-seeking, a healthy self-esteem is tied to a sense of meaning in one’s own self. Long-term studies have shown that low self-esteem in childhood is predictive of developing depression later in life (also see this study).

4. Openness to Experience: The drive for cognitive exploration of inner experience. People who score high in openness to experience favor variety, curiosity, aesthetics, and paying attention to one’s full breadth and depth of emotions. In Logotherapy, meaning is experiences through openness. Modern-day research on post-traumatic growth shows that people who are open to new experience are more likely to grow from their traumas. Indeed, the person high in openness to experience is better able to deal with challenging situations by creatively seeing new possibilities for oneself and others. Among children, openness and curiosity may be a natural drive which gets lessened as we age.

Is a Meaning Mindset Related to Well-Being Among Younger Children?

The link between a meaning mindset and well-being has been found among adolescents but not among younger children. In a new study, Elizabeth St. John, Laura Armstrong, and Emmalyne Watt explored if a meaning mindset in children— as measured by agency, self-esteem, hope, and openness to experience— is predictive of internalizing and externalizing well-being. The researchers recruited a group of 6- to 12- year-olds within religious and school communities. They administered Laura Armstrong’s 4-part measure of meaning in children (The Child Identity and Purpose Questionnaire), and a computerized self-report measure of mental health in children.

The researchers found that meaning was a strong predictor of well-being. In fact, meaning accounted for more than half of the explained variance in well-being!

Implications For Intervention

According to the existential positive psychologist Paul Wong, meaning is the spiritual aspect of personhood. According to psychologist Michael Steger, meaning is “the extent to which people comprehend, make sense of, or see significance in their lives.” Clearly, meaning is important, and it’s about time researchers paid attention to this important aspect of humanity among children.

By targeting the four components of a meaning mindset— agency, hope, self-esteem, and openness to experience— we can cultivate meaning in children. Laura Armstrong and her Master’s student Catherine Potter propose the C.H.A.N.G.E. model to promote greater mental health and prosocial behavior:

(C)hallenge unhelpful thoughts: Question thoughts, look for evidence for and against thoughts, or seek more information (e.g., “What’s the worst things that could happen? What’s the best thing that could happen? What’s the likelihood of those things happening?”).

(H)ealthy behaviors: Schedule feel-good activities and set achievable goals. Recognize predictable triggers for potential challenges or roadblocks to reaching goals and use calm-down strategies or problem-solving skills to overcome the roadblocks (e.g., “listening to music, exercising, talking to a friend, volunteering, meditation/prayer, relaxation activities, engaging in creative activities, etc.”).

(A)ccept things that cannot be changed (but strive to change things that can be changed): Frankl often wrote that if circumstances cannot be changes, then one is forced to change themselves. Explore whether there is some small thing that one can do to help in this situation. Moving from disempowerment to empowerment builds a sense of agency and hopefulness, rather than helplessness (e.g., One may be distressed that others are homeless. Creating or doing things for others helps to build a sense of meaning and empowerment rather than disempowerment).

(N)eed for belonging with others and self-compassion: Relationships are critical to defining one’s self-identity, self of worth, and are a key pathway to experiencing meaning. Having valued relationships builds confidence and self-esteem. Also, self-compassion skills are critical for a positive self-concept. Practice perspective taking (“What’s a different way that someone could feel in this situation?”) and self-compassion (“Practice kind self-talk”).

(G)ratitude: Practicing gratitude can break the “everything is bad” tunnel vision and build hope for the future. Schedule a gratitude time to reflect on what you are grateful for— this can include challenging things that have happened to you but have taught you a valuable lesson.

(E)motional Literacy: Notice and acknowledge one’s own and other’s feelings to enhance emotional literacy. All feelings are potential indicators of a meaningful moment. Emotional literacy is a key foundation for openness to experience or for recognizing that it may be time to challenge unhelpful thoughts (e.g., “What is going on for me right now? Is there a threat in the environment? Do I have to take action to protect myself? Is an unhelpful thought causing this feeling?”).

The C.H.A.N.G.E. model may be a helpful direction for prevention programming to protect against mental health issues. As Elizabeth St. John and her colleagues note, “Programs focused on enhancing meaning— by enhancing agency, self-esteem, openness, and hope— could be introduced in spaces children frequent (e.g., schools, places of worship, camps, and after-school programs).”

Several other therapeutic approaches, such as Paul Wong’s Meaning Therapy for all ages and Laura Armstrong’s Rational-Emotive Attachment Logotherapy for children and families (R.E.A.L.) are also based on Frankl’s Logotherapy. This model teaches skills aimed at enhancing meaning and attachment in the family, building social literacy skills and personal insight through emotion recognition, and addressing negative thinking patterns through evidence testing.

Laura Armstrong also developed a program called the D.R.E.A.M. Program: developing resilience through emotions, attitudes, and meaning to foster meaning-making in children. The D.R.E.A.M. program teaches skills for resilience to school children, aged 6 to 12, through original music and brief hands on activities. It is grounded in the R.E.A.L. approach. D.R.E.A.M. strives to (1) empower school systems with a cost-effective, readily mobilized, sustainable, resiliency-based educational toolkit, and (2) enhance children resilient coping to reduce social, emotional, and behavioral challenges.

Elizabeth St. John and her colleagues point out that, “Programs such as these could be implemented in various parts of the community to help enhance meaning and potentially foster mental health, given the strong relationship between meaning and well-being.”

I am so delighted to finally see research being conducted on the link between meaning in childhood and well-being. I hope to see much more research on this topic so we can have a greater evidence base on what works best to help young children develop a healthy meaning mindset that they can employ the rest of their lives to live a life well lived.