(PS1-91) Meaning in Life Predicts Sensation Seeking Behavior in Individuals with Chronic Medical Conditions

Background: Individuals experiencing a chronic medical condition (CMC) are known to show an earlier onset of depressive symptoms and an impairment in social functioning (Curtis & Luby, 2008). The potential impact of this on developmental and health outcomes raise questions of how to adequately support individuals experiencing a CMC Further, severe or chronic disease in adolescence predicts greater risks for suicidality and psychological distress later in life (Palmu & Partonen, 2023). Current literature on sensation seeking examines its relation to a wide range of health risk behaviors including substance use, risky driving, and unsafe sex (Conner, 2021). Additionally, the engagement of health risk behaviors in those with a chronic medical condition reveals an increased prevalence by 8-21 fold (Almuneef et al., 2014) Recently, research has shown that reminiscent functions elucidating a reflection of one’s illness and circumstance are correlated to meaning-making and increased positive psychological outcomes (Kalaycı-Çelik & Uzer, 2022). These findings suggest a need to further investigate the effect of meaning-making in populations experiencing CMC and reduce engagement in health risk behaviors.

Methods: Participants were recruited through an undergraduate research pool at a large western university in the United States. The sample consisted of 977 participants who endorsed the presence of at least one chronic medical condition. Participants responded to surveys examining -meaning in life, chronic medical conditions, pain coping and sensation seeking. Risk seeking and experience seeking, subscales of sensation seeking, served as the outcome variable (Conner, 2021). Severity of CMC, defined as 0 = No CMC, 1 = Presence of CMC, 2 = Treatment for CMC, and 3 = Limitations in functioning due to CMC, served as the independent variable. MIL served as the mediator. The PROCESS macro in SPSS was used to analyze the data.

Results: Results from predictive analyses indicated a significant negative direct effect of severity of CMC on meaning in life (MIL), a significant direct negative effect of MIL on risk seeking and a significant direct positive of MIL on experience seeking (all p< 0.001). Results also indicated significant mediating effects of MIL on the relation between severity of CMC and both facets of sensation seeking. Probing the directionality of the interactions revealed that CMC was positively related to risk seeking when MIL was low and not related to risk seeking when MIL was high Additionally, CMC was not related to experience seeking when MIL was low but was positively related to experience seeking when MIL was high.

Discussion: Establishing a sense of MIL while navigating having a CMC may have the potential to mitigate engagement in sensation seeking type behaviors. Our results reveal those with CMCs have lower levels of MIL. This suggests that meaning-making may play a role in improving health outcomes. Further research is needed to fully understand how to support meaning-making within individuals experiencing chronic medical conditions.