Meaning, Spirituality and Happiness

Meaning goes with mental health

Psychologists usually measure meaning with the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, published in 2006. It has two parts: presence of meaning (I have it) and search for meaning (I am looking). In the original studies, presence went with higher life satisfaction and less depression, while searching was linked with more depression in one sample. The two parts barely overlap, so someone can have meaning and still be searching.

A 2025 review pooled 278 studies with over 250,000 people and found a moderate link: more meaning, less depression. A 2023 review of 99 samples (over 66,000 people) found that purpose in life was even more closely tied to lower depression and anxiety. These studies show association, not cause. Depression itself drains the sense that life matters, so the arrow runs both ways.

In a UK study that followed young adults from their mid-twenties to around 30, those who felt their lives had meaning were less likely to become depressed or anxious later, while those still searching for meaning were more likely to feel anxious.

Purpose and a longer life

A 2016 review of 10 long-term studies with 136,000 people found that those with a higher sense of purpose had about 17% lower risk of death and of heart attacks or strokes during follow-up. A US study of about 7,000 adults over 50 found that people with the lowest purpose were more than twice as likely to die over the next few years as those with the highest. A 2017 review of 66 studies found that meaning is linked with better physical health, most strongly for how healthy people say they feel and more weakly for objective measures.

The newest and largest analysis, published in 2026, pooled nearly half a million people followed for up to 32 years. Those with a stronger sense of purpose were less likely to die during the study, but the link shrank a lot once health habits, illness and depression were taken into account. Another 2026 re-analysis found that when people's health at the start is measured carefully, much of the link disappears. That suggests being ill can lower both purpose and lifespan, so purpose may not be the cause.

Ikigai in Japan

Japanese researchers ask one simple question: "Do you have ikigai in your life?" In the Ohsaki study of 43,000 adults, people without ikigai were about 1.5 times as likely to die over seven years. A larger cohort of 73,000 adults found similar but smaller effects. Recent work suggests the causal arrow may start with people: among older Japanese adults, a richer social life predicted more ikigai three years later, but ikigai did not clearly predict more social life.

Religion and spirituality

A 2003 review of 147 studies (99,000 people) found religious people had slightly fewer depressive symptoms; the link was small and stronger under stress. A 2019 review of 152 long-term studies found religion or spirituality predicted a modestly better course of depression in about half of them. Religious struggle, such as feeling abandoned or punished by God, went with more depression. In young people, a 2023 review found that spiritual wellbeing was protective, but simply rating religion as important was not linked to depression.

Awe and transcendence

Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast. In a small trial, older adults who took weekly "awe walks" for eight weeks felt more joy and less daily distress than people taking ordinary walks, but their anxiety, depression and life satisfaction scores did not change. A 2025 trial of 68 people with long COVID found a brief awe practice reduced depressive symptoms, but it compared against a waiting list and was small.

Can meaning be increased?

Yes, modestly. A 2021 review of 33 randomised trials found that programmes such as mindfulness, life-story writing and meaning-focused therapy increased meaning. Against a real comparison activity the effect was small to moderate. In people with cancer, meaning-centred therapy, which grew out of Viktor Frankl's ideas, raises meaning and slightly reduces depression.

If low mood is severe, lasts for weeks, or comes with thoughts of self-harm, talk to a doctor or a trusted adult.

What this means for you

Meaning is not a luxury. It is built from ordinary things: relationships, roles where you are needed, and moments of wonder. A religious community can supply all three, but so can a choir, a garden, a team or a cause.

Constructs and measurement

The field uses overlapping constructs: presence of and search for meaning (MLQ; Steger et al., 2006), purpose in life (Ryff scales, Life Engagement Test), ikigai (usually a single item in Japanese cohorts), and religiosity/spirituality (attendance, salience, coping, spiritual wellbeing). Damon, Menon and Bronk (2003) define purpose as a stable intention to accomplish something meaningful to the self and consequential beyond it, which distinguishes it from meaning in general. Effect sizes vary with the construct; scales combining meaning with peace and harmony give stronger health associations, partly because of item overlap with wellbeing (Czekierda et al., 2017).

Correlational evidence

• Meaning and depression: r = -0.33 (Ouyang et al., 2025; 278 studies, N = 252,254; three-level model), moderated by MiL component, depression measure, health status and language.
• Purpose and depression r = -0.49; anxiety r = -0.36, stronger in clinical samples (Boreham & Schutte, 2023; k = 99, n = 66,468).
• Meaning and physical health: pooled effect 0.258, weaker for objective indicators (Czekierda et al., 2017; k = 66).
• Adolescents: purpose correlated r = -0.53 with depression in 444 Italian students, cross-sectional (Barcaccia et al., 2023).

Prospective cohorts

Purpose and all-cause mortality: adjusted pooled RR 0.83 (0.75 to 0.91), cardiovascular events RR 0.83 (Cohen et al., 2016; 10 studies, N = 136,265). HRS: lowest vs highest purpose HR 2.43 (1.57 to 3.75) over about four years (Alimujiang et al., 2019; N = 6,985). Ikigai: absence of ikigai HR 1.5 (1.3 to 1.7) for all-cause mortality, driven by cardiovascular and external causes, not cancer (Sone et al., 2008; N = 43,391); with ikigai HR 0.85 in men and 0.93 in women (Tanno et al., 2009; N = 73,272); with ikigai HR 0.50 for incident disability over 11 years (Mori et al., 2017; N = 830). A cross-lagged analysis found social interaction predicted later ikigai (β = 0.165) but not the reverse (Pei et al., 2026; N = 504), and in 48,796 middle-aged adults, more social roles went with better self-rated health, with ikigai statistically mediating over half of this association in cross-sectional data (Suzuki et al., 2025). All are observational; residual confounding by health, personality and socioeconomic status is plausible.

Two 2026 papers sharpen the causal question. An individual-participant-plus-literature meta-analysis (25 samples, N = 488,765, 48,928 deaths, up to 32 years) found purpose associated with lower mortality (HR = 0.76, 0.70 to 0.83), attenuating to HR = 0.85 after behavioural and clinical adjustment and HR = 0.91 after adjusting for depression; all samples were from high-income countries (Sutin et al., 2026). In HRS data (N = 5,953), the low-purpose mortality hazard fell from HR = 2.59 to 1.77 (0.97 to 3.22) with objective baseline health controls, and became non-significant after excluding seriously ill participants, consistent with baseline-health confounding or reverse causation (Sias & Turtle, 2026). In emerging adults, a UK birth cohort (n = 3,337) found presence of meaning at age 26 prospectively predicted lower odds of depression, anxiety, self-harm and low wellbeing at 29 to 31, whereas search for meaning predicted higher odds of anxiety and low wellbeing (Halstead et al., 2026).

Religion and spirituality

Smith, McCullough and Poll (2003): r = -0.096 across 147 studies, larger under stress; extrinsic orientation and negative religious coping associated with more depression. Braam and Koenig (2019): 152 prospective studies, average d = -0.18; religious struggle d = +0.30; R/S less protective in younger and medically ill samples. Aggarwal et al. (2023; ages 10 to 24; Wellcome-funded): spiritual wellbeing r = -0.153, importance of religion r = -0.024 (null), negative coping r = 0.09 (trend). Nurses' Health Study: attending services more than weekly vs never, HR 0.67 for mortality (Li et al., 2016; N = 74,534). In the Growing Up Today Study, weekly attendance in adolescence predicted greater life satisfaction and positive affect in young adulthood (Chen & VanderWeele, 2018). Religious/spiritual intervention RCTs mainly reduced anxiety, with heterogeneous protocols (Gonçalves et al., 2015; 23 RCTs).

Interventions

Manco and Hamby (2021; 33 RCTs): SMD 0.85 vs passive and 0.32 (0.09 to 0.55) vs active controls, with high heterogeneity. In cancer: g = 0.37, rising to 0.42 for meaning-targeted programmes (Park et al., 2019; 29 RCTs, N = 2,305; NIH-funded); meaning-centred interventions in advanced cancer gave SMD 0.22 for meaning and -0.15 for depression, moderate certainty (Shen et al., 2025). Vos and Vitali (2018) reported g around 1.0, but pooled non-randomised designs; we treat that as an upper bound. Youth: a scoping review of 25 studies (N = 4,408, ages 14 to 24) found moderate average reductions in depression from multi-component purpose programmes and warned of possible harms when readiness and context are ignored (Hielscher et al., 2023); school Well-Being Therapy improved purpose in Italian students (Ruini et al., 2023).

Awe

Monroy and Keltner (2023) propose five pathways linking awe to health; this is a theoretical review. Sturm et al. (2022; N = 60): awe walks raised prosocial positive emotion and lowered daily distress, with no change in anxiety, depression or life satisfaction. Monroy et al. (2025; N = 68): waitlist control, completers-only analysis, d = 0.78 to 0.96; two co-authors appear to be the developers of the awe method that was tested, which they also sell commercially, so the result needs independent replication. Seven samples found awe inductions did not increase empathy overall (Li et al., 2023), a useful check on broad claims.

Funding and conflicts of interest

The John Templeton Foundation funds much of this field. Verified on the funding statements: Damon et al. (2003) and Bronk's Fostering Purpose youth programme (John Templeton Foundation); Li et al. (2016) and Chen and VanderWeele (2018) (a Templeton foundation grant, alongside NIH). Templeton's mission includes interest in the benefits of religion and purpose, so readers should weigh this, although the Harvard analyses use large NIH-funded cohorts with extensive adjustment for confounders. We could not verify funding for Smith et al. (2003), Braam and Koenig (2019) or Monroy and Keltner (2023).

Open debates

Direction of causality (depression lowers meaning); whether "search" is harmful or developmental in adolescence; culture (ikigai and MLQ correlates vary by language and individualism); attendance effects may reflect social integration rather than belief; few trials in healthy 12 to 15 year olds.

Claims we deliberately do not make

That religious people are happier because of their beliefs; that purpose or ikigai adds a fixed number of years to life; that the four-circle "ikigai diagram" is Japanese or validated; that you must find one single life purpose; that awe cures depression; that non-religious people lack meaning; that meaning interventions are as effective as their largest reported effect sizes.