Perceived meaning of life and coping styles among undergraduate health siences students

This descriptive study was conducted to determine health sciences undergraduate students' perception of personal meaning in their lives and their coping styles. Study sample consisted of 1160 students of the field of Health Sciences of Hacettepe University in the 2017–2018 academic year. Data were collected using a Personal Information Form developed based on literature review, and the Personal Meaning Profile Scale (PMP) and the Ways of Coping Inventory Scale (WCIS). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and ANOVA, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests. Participants' PMP subscale scores differed significantly by faculty, grade level, gender, age, parental status, internship practice, economic level, activity, family relation, major and smoking-drinking status (p < 0.05). Participants had the highest mean scores on the PMP subscales "relationship" and "Intimacy" while they had the highest and lowest mean scores on the WCIS subscales "self-confident approach" and "submissive approach," respectively. These results indicate that health sciences students mostly use the subscales "relationship" and "ıntimacy" as a source to make meaning of life while they use the subscales "self-confident approach" the most and "submissive approach" the least as coping mechanisms. The PMP subscales "achievement," "religion," "self-acceptance," "ıntimacy," "self-transcendence," "fair treatment" and "relationship" are negatively and weakly correlated with the WCI subscales "helpless approach" and "submissive approach" (p < 0.05), indicating that students do not adopt helpless and submissive coping strategies when they use the meaning making sources. In this context, in guidance to be presented, education and counselling services that will be offered to the health sciences students; it is recomended creating of awareness in terms of giving the meaning to the life and coping with it and structuring of consultancy activities in this direction.