Meaning
in Life and Adolescent Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior in a Chinese
Context
D.T.L. Shek, H. K. Ma & P.C. Cheung |
The
Chinese version of the Purpose in Life Questionnaire (G-PIL) was
administered to 790 Chinese secondary school students, along with
other instruments assessing their antisocial and prosocial behavior.
The results showed that the C-PIL and its two sub-scales, Quality
of Existence (QEXIST) and Purpose of Existence (PEXIST), correlated
significantly with all measures of antisocial and prosocial behavior,
with those having higher C-PIL scores showing less antisocial behavior
and more prosocial behavior. The results also showed that relative
to QEXIST scores, PEXIST scores were found to be more predictive
of antisocial and prosocial behavior measures. The present findings
are consistent with Frankl's notion that meaning in life is intimately
related to psychological symptoms as indexed by antisocial behavior.
The data obtained also suggest that purpose in life is associated
with positive social behavior as indexed by prosocial behavior.
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