The influence of parental death on the measures of meaning and depression in a sample of HIV and Aids Health Education Volunteers

Resumo

(Abstract) The levels of meaning and depressive symptoms, of HIV and Aids Health Education Volunteers (N=24), who are bereaved (lost one or both parents) (N=13) and those who are non-bereaved (N=11), were investigated. A pre-experimental design, one group pretest-posttest design, was used. The participants’ age ranged from 20 to 39 years (M= 27.13; SD= 5.25). T-tests for paired samples revealed that, the PIL scores of non-bereaved participants improved from moderate sense of meaning, in the pre-test, to high sense of meaning, in the post-test; and their BDI scores improved from mild depressive symptoms to normal fluctuations. Interestingly, similar improvements were noticed in the PIL and BDI scores of bereaved participants, even though their scores were lower, in both measures. In this way, Viktor Frankl’s theory of sense of meaning was found to be helpful in improving well-being; especially of bereaved participants.