Investigation of personal factors affecting existential anxiety: A model testing study

Abstract

This study aims to test a theoretical model which was developed based on the related literature for explaining certain variables that may influence existential anxiety of university students. The main hypothesis of the study is that affective and cognitive factors (death anxiety, the meaning of life, life satisfaction, positive affect and depression) may be related to existential anxiety. The study group consisted of 1230 university students (707 female and 523 male participants) enrolled in different universities. The Existential Concerns Questionnaire, Death Anxiety Scale, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and the Beck Depression Inventory were used to collect the data. The statistical data were analyzed using IBM AMOS 21.0 software. As a result of the statistical analysis of the data, goodness of fit indices (NFI, CFI and GFI) excluding χ2 /sd and RMSEA value show that the model has a perfect fit and the AGFI value is acceptable. The analysis results of the structural equation model show whether existential anxiety significantly predicts the death anxiety. The death anxiety and the meaning of life predicted positive affect significantly and positively. Furthermore, the meaning of life and the death anxiety predicted life satisfaction significantly and positively. Positive affect predicted life satisfaction positively; and positive affect and life satisfaction predicted subjective well-being significantly and positively.