The latest research suggests that the relationships between the risk of contracting COVID-19, personal resources and subjective well-being have rather an indirect character and can include the occurrence of mediating factors related to meaning-making processes and stress experiences. Protection motivation theory offers a theoretical paradigm that enables these associations to be thoroughly investigated and understood. The current study aimed to examine the mediating roles of meaning-making and stress in the relationship of risk of contracting COVID-19 and personal resources (self-efficacy and meaning in life) with subjective well-being among healthcare workers. A total of 225 healthcare workers from hospitals, medical centres and diagnostic units completed a set of questionnaires during the first few months of the COVID-19 lockdown period (March–May 2020). The results revealed that greater self-efficacy and meaning in life were associated with higher cognitive and affective dimensions of subjective well-being, whereas a lesser risk of contracting COVID-19 was only associated with the higher affective dimension. The central finding demonstrated different mediating roles of stress and meaning-making in the relationship of risk of contracting COVID-19 and personal resources with the cognitive and affective dimensions of subjective well-being. This confirmed the applicability of meaning-oriented and stress management processes for understanding how healthcare workers’ well-being is affected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background and Purpose: The literature indicates connections between social support and acceptance of a personal diagnosis of breast cancer, but these relationships are likely to be mediated due to numerous connections between social support and illness acceptance with meaning-making and fear of recurrence. We decided to investigate whether meaning-making and fear of recurrence serially mediated the relationship between perceived and received social support and illness acceptance. Methods: The current research examined 246 adult women patients with a breast cancer diagnosis who were undergoing radiotherapy/chemotherapy treatment in oncological hospitals. This cross-sectional study based on a mediational model was reported according to the STROBE checklist. Results: Our results supported the mediational model in which meaning-making and fear of recurrence serially mediated the relationship of both perceived and received social support with illness acceptance. Furthermore, the mediating power of meaning-making was more significant than the fear of recurrence. Conclusion: Meaning structures and anxiety played an important mediating role in breast cancer patients. Finding additional meaning and goals and experiencing lower fear enables the patients to effectively make use of social support and accept their illness. Practice implications: The current study identified factors that increase illness acceptance among breast cancer patients as it showed that patients can gain a greater understanding of the nature of their illness by becoming more aware of their own goals and values and reduce anxiety by learning about their current state of the illness.

Adolescents have come to be greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing containment measures in recent months. The aim of the present study was to examine the relations among religiosity, meaning-making, fear of COVID-19, and subjective well-being within a moderated mediation model. Three hundred and sixteen late adolescents (173 women and 143 men) in Poland volunteered to take part in the study. The results show that meaning-making mediated relationships between religiosity and life satisfaction, religiosity and positive affect, and religiosity and negative affect. In addition, these mediation effects were moderated by the fear of COVID-19. Specifically, the indirect effects were stronger for adolescents with high fear than for those with low fear, which indicates that fear of COVID-19 serves as a ‘warning’ factor.

Background: The concepts of meaning in life and well-being appear to have structural and functional connections, which become even more noticeable when examining their role in individuals’ daily functioning. One of the prospective variables which can play a mediational role between meaning in life and subjective and psychological well-being may be optimism, which also holds an important motivational value for young people. The aim of this study was to examine the predictive value of meaning in life and optimism, and indirect effects between meaning in life and subjective and psychological well-being among Polish late adoles-cents within the self-concordant model.Participants and procedure: A total of 205 participants (104 female and 101 male; mean age = 18.31 years) from Poland completed five scales measuring meaning in life, optimism, and well-being. They completed the following measures: the Personal Meaning Profile, the Life Ori-entation Test–Revised, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Psychological Well-Being Scale.Results: Results of SEM analysis demonstrated that meaning in life and optimism were positively related to both subjective and psycho-logical well-being. Optimism served as a partial mediator in the relationships between meaning in life and subjective and psy-chological well-being.Conclusions: The mediating effect of optimism was explained within the self-concordance model. Consistent with the model, meaning in life had an enhancing effect on late adolescents’ experience of optimism on the basis of self-concordant goals, which in turn led to improving their subjective and psychological well-being.