MEANING IN LIFE AND ADOLESCENT ANTISOCIAL AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN A CHINESE CONTEXT

The Chinese version of the Purpose in Life Questionnaire (C-PIL) was administered to 790 Chinese secondary school students, along with other instruments assessing their antisocial and prosocial behavior. The results showed that the C-PIL and its two sub-scales, Quality of Existence (QEXIST) and Purpose of Existence (PEXIST), correlated significantly with all measures of antisocial and prosocial behavior, with those having higher C-PIL scores showing less antisocial behavior and more prosocial behavior. The results also showed that relative to QEXIST scores, PEXIST scores were found to be more predictive of antisocial and prosocial behavior measures. The present findings are consistent with Frankl's notion that meaning in life is intimately related to psychological symptoms as indexed by antisocial behavior. The data obtained also suggest that purpose in life is associated with positive social behavior as indexed by prosocial behavior.