In this blog post, authors of the recently published Royal Society Open Science paper, '', tell us more about their research.
Most of us experience some stressful or negative life events, such as bereavement, periods of unemployment, or relationship conflict. explored two psychological processes, catastrophising and meaning-making, that relate to experiencing stressful life events.
What is catastrophising?
Catastrophising is when someone predicts or expects the worst to come from a particular situation. For example, if you do poorly in one job interview, you might imagine failing all future interviews and never getting a job, which is not necessarily the case. Catastrophising is a shared or transdiagnostic symptom of many different mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
What is meaning-making?
Meaning-making is the process of finding a clear, coherent or positive interpretation of the stressful or negative life event. This is proposed to involve merging core personal beliefs or goals about oneself (eg "I want to find a job") with thoughts/feelings about the stressful event (eg feeling sad or disappointed about the interview outcome). In other words, after a stressful life event, the aim is to ‘integrate’ this event into one’s broader life story and one’s understanding of oneself.
What was the purpose of this study?
Previous research suggests that catastrophising is linked to individuals’ ability to cope with stressful life situations. For instance, firefighters with higher levels of catastrophising before active duty (ie fighting actual fires in the field) were more likely to struggle and develop PTSD-like symptoms while in their role. Similarly, individuals who struggle with the ‘meaning-making’ process after stressful life experiences can experience higher levels of psychological distress, regardless of existing mental health conditions.
However, to the best of our knowledge, no research to date has directly assessed the relationship between meaning-making and catastrophising. Further, many existing studies on catastrophising focus on high-risk populations, such as firefighters, or are conducted within the context of chronic pain. Therefore, this study looked at catastrophising and meaning-making following general stressful life experiences, such as bereavement, in a general population sample.
As extensive evidence shows that a multitude of factors impact mental health, this study also aimed to explore the relationship between perceived socioeconomic status (SES), catastrophising and meaning-making from stressful life experiences.
What did the study find, and what makes these findings significant?
The study found a strong negative correlation between catastrophising and meaning-making from stressful life experiences, such that higher levels of catastrophising are associated with less successful integration of these experiences into one’s broader life story. This builds on existing evidence by showing this relationship exists for ‘general’ stressful life events, within a general population sample, rather than a high-risk sample or after significant trauma. Importantly, meaning-making was found to partially mediate the relationship between experiencing stressful life events and catastrophising. This is particularly interesting because it suggests that successful meaning-making from stressful life events may play a protective role against catastrophising symptoms and, in turn, psychological distress. Lastly, this study also presents novel findings regarding the relationships among perceived SES, catastrophising, meaning-making, and stressful life experiences.
While extensive research links lower SES to poorer mental health, this study extends this by reporting a negative correlation between the construct of catastrophising and perceived SES. This means that higher levels of catastrophising are associated with lower perceived SES, although the direction of this relationship remains unclear. Further, somewhat surprisingly, perceived SES showed no significant relationship with levels of meaning-making in response to stressful life experiences. This study began to explore potential reasons for this lack of relationship, finding that differences in severity or frequency of stressful life experiences do not seem to be relevant factors.
What comes next?
Future research could collect longitudinal data on catastrophising and meaning-making after stressful life experiences, rather than cross-sectional data. This would be useful for establishing whether meaning-making mediates the onset of catastrophising symptoms following stressful life experiences. This would be important for building an evidence base on the relevance of meaning-making after stressful life experiences for catastrophising, to inform future psychological therapeutic interventions.
Additionally, future studies should aim to recruit more diverse participant samples, especially focusing on the representation of those from lower perceived SES. This would allow further exploration of the relationship between perceived SES, stressful life experiences, and meaning-making, building on the current study's findings.
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