The Meaning of Life During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Method Research

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

The purpose of this research is to examine the meaning of life in young adults, middle adults and advanced adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study group of the research consists of 620 adults, 403 female (65%) and 217 male (35%) residing in various provinces of Turkey. The age range of the participants ranged from 20 to 80 (x̄=37.8), with 383 (61.78%) in young adulthood, 134 (21.61%) in middle adulthood and 103 (16.61%) in advanced adulthood. Explanatory sequential design, one of the mixed methods, was used in the research. For the quantitative research, the “Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ)” was applied to the participants. After the application, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 30 people selected by the maximum diversity sampling method. Quantitative data obtained within the scope of the research were analyzed by independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA); qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. In the quantitative findings of the research, it is seen that the total meaning of life scores differ significantly in favor of female. The mean scores obtained from the scale differed significantly between advanced adults and young and middle adults; It was found that there was no significant difference between young adults and middle adults. Three different main themes obtained from the qualitative findings of the research were discussed in the context of three developmental periods: young adulthood, middle adulthood and advanced adulthood.