ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2026
Meaning in life and the mental health - addiction spiral: testing a unifying model.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Introduction: Meaning in life (MIL) refers to the sense that one's existence is coherent, purposeful, and significant. A growing body of research highlights the role of MIL in psychological well-being and resilience, as well as its inverse associations with psychological distress and problematic substance use. However, empirical work examining the joint and reciprocal relations between MIL, psychopathological symptoms, and a broad range of substance-related and behavioral addictive behaviors remains limited. The present research proposes a unifying model in which the presence of MIL is associated with lower psychological distress and reduced engagement in addictive behaviors, while psychopathological symptoms and addictions mutually reinforce one another in a downward spiral. Methods: Data were collected during the "Swords of Iron" war in Israel from two samples. Study 1 included young Israeli adults aged 18-26 (N = 1,084), and Study 2 included a quasi-representative sample of Israeli adults aged 18-70 (N = 2,912). Participants completed validated self-report measures assessing the presence of MIL, psychopathological symptoms (depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms), and problematic substance use and behavioral addictions, including alcohol, cannabis, prescription drugs, gambling, gaming, pornography, sex, internet, and social media use. Analyses included correlational, regression, and mediation models testing both direct and indirect associations among these constructs. Results: Across both studies, a higher presence of MIL was consistently associated with lower levels of psychopathological symptoms and reduced engagement in a wide range of substance-related and behavioral addictive behaviors. Mediation analyses indicated that psychopathological symptoms, particularly depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms, partially mediated the associations between MIL and addictive behaviors. Complementary analyses also supported indirect pathways in the opposite direction, in which addictive behaviors were linked to higher distress through reduced MIL, consistent with a bidirectional psychopathology-addiction downward spiral. Conclusions: The findings provide convergent evidence that MIL functions as a robust protective psychological factor across developmental stages and during a period of collective trauma. These results underscore the relevance of existential constructs for understanding comorbidity between psychological distress and addictive behaviors and highlight the potential value of incorporating meaning-oriented approaches into prevention and intervention strategies targeting addiction and mental health.
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