The Meaning of the Life on Young Adult

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the meaning in young adults' lives according to gender, perceived socio economic status, perceived parental attitudes, association or separation of parents and birth order variables. In the light of scientific data, making way for individuals who search for meaning in life or who are not satisfied with the one he / she found is the secondary purpose of this study. The sample group of this research consists of randomly chosen 465 students (215 female / 250 male) who study various subjects at Sakarya University and Istanbul Technical University. These people are young adults between the ages 17 – 27. This is a descriptive study, which is based on correlational research model. Personal Data Form, which was developed by the researcher to collect information about young adults' gender, position according to birth order, perceived level of income, association or separation of parents and perceived parental attitudes was used as a measurement tool. The Meaning in Life Questionnaire developed by Steger, Fraizer, Oishi and Kaler (2006) and adapted to Turkey by Akin and Tas was used to set out adults' level of meaning in life. As a result of the analysis of the obtained data, young adults' level of presentmeaning in life, search meaning in life and general meaning in life do not show expressive differences according to gender, perceived socio economic status and association or separation of parents. However, young adults' level of present meaning in life, search meaning in life and general meaning in life differ meaningfully in terms of parental attitude.