Perceived risk, Positive Youth-Parent Relationships, and Internalizing Problems in Adolescents: Initial Development of the Meaningful School Questionnaire

Abstract

This novel paper aimed to develop the Meaningful School Questionnaire (MSQ) to assess meaning in life in school context and examined whether meaningful school serves as a moderator on the links between the coronavirus risk, youth-parent relationships, and internalizing problems. Participants included 383 adolescents (38.4% male; Mean = 14.23 ± 2.04). Factor analysis yielded a two-factor solution: purpose-enjoyment and responsible understanding. Meaningful school moderated the mediating effect of positive youth-parent relations on the association between coronavirus risk and internalizing problems. Findings suggest that students with greater life meaning exhibit more internalizing problems when coronavirus risk is high and positive youth-parent relationships is low. This evidence supports that life meaning is key to foster the psychological health of young people during the pandemic. Thus, meaning-based intervention strategies could be developed to improve youths' sense of life meaning and purpose in the school context, which in turn enhance their resilience to foster their mental health and flourishing. These programs could facilitate youths to cope with stressful experiences such as the coronavirus pandemic by promoting their protective and promotive resources.

Keywords: Adolescents; Coronavirus risk; Internalizing problems; Meaningful school; Positive youth–parent relationships.

Fig. 1

Proposed models showing the association between the variables of the study

Fig. 2

Moderating effect of meaning on the link between coronavirus risk perception and anxiety

Fig. 3

Moderating effect of meaning on the link between positive youth–parent relationships and depressive symptoms