title: Finding meaning in loss: the mediating role of social support between personality and two construals of meaning.
abstract: Dimensions of personality may shape an individual's response to loss both directly and indirectly through its effects on other variables such as an individual's ability to seek social support. The mediating effect of social support on the relationship between personality (i.e., extraversion and neuroticism) and 2 construals of meaning (i.e., sense-making and benefit-finding) among 325 bereaved individuals was explored using path analysis. Supporting our hypotheses, social support mediated the relationship between personality and construals of meaning. Neuroticism was negatively and indirectly associated with both sense-making and benefit-finding through social support. Extraversion had a significant positive relationship to social support, which, in turn, mediated the impact of extraversion on both sense-making and benefit finding. The model explained 35% of the variance in social support, 19% of the variance in sense-making, and 25% of the variance in benefit-finding. Implications are discussed in light of existing theories of bereavement and loss.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee 37209, USA. gboyraz@gmail.com
authors.forename: Güler
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Boyraz
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling and School Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Sharon G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Horne
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Research, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Sayger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D001601:Bereavement; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D000075384:Neuroticism; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012944:Social Support; D055815:Young Adult