The Role of Meaning in Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Young Adults’ Future Perspectives in Italy and Portugal

Abstract

Presence of meaning in life has been found to be adaptive during the pandemic (Humphrey & Vari, 2021; Samios et al., 2021), however, no studies were conducted to understand whether meaning in life is related to future perspectives in young adulthood. In the current study both the objective impact and the subjective impact of the COVID-19 pandemic were considered as predictive factors of young adults’ negative future perspectives through the activation of presence and search for meaning in life, in Italy and Portugal. Data were collected from emerging adults (18–35 years) between February and October 2021 via an online survey. Results showed that the objective impact of COVID-19 was not associated to neither meaning in life nor future perspectives in both countries. While the subjective COVID-19 impact was similarly associated in the two countries with both meaning in life and future perspectives, as young adults who were more worried about the pandemic effects, perceived their future more negatively and were engaged in a deeper search for meaning in life. Cross-country differences were found only in the strength of the relations between meaning in life and future perspectives. Specifically, a low presence of meaning was associated to negative future perspectives especially in Italy, while a high search for meaning was associated with negative future perspectives especially in Portugal. The present study has the merit of underlining the importance of considering subjective COVIDrelated worries and the role of meaning in life in the way young people cope with present and future uncertainties related to the pandemic.