The self-construal theory (Markus & Kitayama, 1991) postulates the basic cultural self-views explain cultural differences in feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. There are two dimensions of cultural self-views namely: independent and interdependent self-construals. Independent self-construal is a view of self which is more common for people in the Western and individualist cultures. People who engender this self-construal tend to place higher value in taking actions that reflect their dispositions and values. Interdependent self-construal, on the other hand, is a view of self which is more typical for individuals who are embedded in the non-Western collectivist settings. For individuals who espouse an interdependent construal of self, most of the actions or behaviors are predicated on forming and maintaining sound relationships with others. Markus and Kitayama (1991) have also noted that it is possible for both self-construals to exist within a specific context.

Previous research has identified some social and contextual predictors of meaning in life which may include, but were not limited to, attachment orientations (Lopez, Ramos, Nisenbaum, Thind & Ortiz-Rodriguez, 2015), connectedness to nature (Howell, Passmore, & Buro, 2013), maternal responsiveness (Brassai et al., 2013), social interests (Kim, Park, & Hogge, 2015), and sense of belongingness (Lambert et al., 2013). Avoidance and anxiety attachment orientations had stronger negative correlations with the presence of meaning than search for meaning in life (Lopez et al., 2015). Previous studies have not paid much attention to cultural correlates of a meaningful life.

There are several lines of evidence which points to the likelihood that different extent of self-construal may have similar associations with perceptions of meaning in life. First, Steger et al. (2008) have found that individuals who endorse independent self-construals tend to show more significant presence of meaning than those endorse interdependent self-construals. Those with more interdependent views of the self also display a greater search for meaning in life. Second, the study of Datu (2016) has revealed that in a collectivist context, individuals’ inclination to search for the most optimal choice in life was associated with the higher presence of meaning in life. Third, people in individualist cultures are more inclined to foster a more positive self-image (self-enhancement) compared to those in collectivist societies who are prone to criticize and improve self-image (self-effacement) (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999). Fourth, prior evidence about cultural differences in cognitive styles has shown that those who are entrenched in individualist cultures tend to use an analytic thinking style while individuals who are embedded in collectivist societies tend to adopt a dialectical thinking style (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001; Peng & Nisbett, 1999). As a consequence of enjoying a dialectical way of thinking, collectivists appreciate the importance of dealing with contradictory and divergent perspectives. These lines of evidence would likely suggest that an interdependent self-view (interdependent self-construal) may be strongly associated with the search for meaning while an independent self-construal may be strongly linked to the presence of meaning in life.

The study aimed to examine the associations of cultural self-views with meaning in life dimensions through a structural equation modeling approach. Specifically, we investigated the extent to which independent and interdependent self-construals may be associated with the presence of and search for meaning in life among a Filipino university student sample. Our study offered two contributions to the extant meaning in life literature.

First, whereas past literature has explored the social antecedents of a meaningful life (e.g., Howell et al., 2013; Lambert et al., 2013; Lopez et al., 2015), it appears that no study assessed the linkage between cultural variables and meaning in life. Our research hopes to fill this research gap through investigating self-construal dimensions as differential predictors of meaning in life. Although Steger et al. (2008) found that cross-cultural distinctions existed on meaning in life among the U.S. and Japanese contexts, they did not examine the role of specific cultural variables in experiencing a meaningful life. To our knowledge, this is the first study which explored the association of self-construals with meaning in life.

Second, while previous studies have assessed meaning in life in the Western cultural contexts, limited studies were conducted in collectivist societies such as Turkey, Philippines, Japan, and Hong Kong (i.e., Boyraz, Lightsey, & Can, 2013; Datu, 2016; Steger et al., 2008; Yuen & Yau, 2015). In that sense, our study can offer promising insights regarding the potential cross-cultural applicability of the meaning in life construct in the Philippines which is also considered as a collectivist context (Datu, 2015).

The following hypotheses were tested in our study:

H1: Independent self-construal will positively predict the presence of meaning.

H2: Interdependent self-construal will positively predict the search for meaning.

The sample was comprised of 156 Filipino undergraduate students from a private university in Metro Manila. The average age of the participants was 17.68 a standard deviation of 2.87. There were 62 male and 91 female students while 3 participants failed to specify gender in the demographic detail form. The participants were requested to fill up consent forms before taking part in the present research.

Several statistical analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses of the study. The mean, standard deviation, and Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of the constructs were computed. Pearson-r correlational analyses were also performed to assess the association among the variables (i.e., independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, presence of and search for meaning in life). Calculation of descriptive statistics and correlational analyses was carried out using the 23rd version of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.

We also followed the two-step approach of Anderson and Gerbing (1988) which involved testing a measurement model to examine the extent to which the latent constructs are represented by its corresponding indicators (Step 1) and a structural model to evaluate the associations of each self-construal type with meaning in life dimensions (Step 2). In Step 1, three parcel indicators were created for each type of self-construal while two parcel indicators were formed for each meaning in life domain because Little, Cunningham, Shahar, and Widaman. (2002) suggested the use of parceling for latent constructs with numerous indicators to produce more accurate parameter estimates of the hypothesized measurement and structural model. To assess the fit of both models, we referred to the some of the criteria set Marsh et al. (2010) which stipulated that a good-fitting model should have the following range of values: a.) Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), and Incremental Fit Index (NFI) with values that are greater than .95; and b.) Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) should be lower than .08.

The results of descriptive statistics and correlational analyses are shown in Table 1. The pattern of association was consistent with the hypotheses posited in the study. Particularly, independent self-construal was positively correlated with the presence of meaning while interdependent self-construal was positively correlated with the search for meaning (See Table 1).

Table 1 Table 1 Descriptive statistics, reliability, and correlational coefficients among the variables

* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01

The hypothesized measurement model was composed of four latent constructs with the following number of indicators: independent self-construal (3 parcels), interdependent self-construal (3 parcels), presence of meaning (2 parcels), and search for meaning (2 parcels). Results of confirmatory factor analysis showed a very good fitting model: χ² = 42.64, df = 29, p <0.05, CFI = 0.96, GFI = 0.96, IFI = 0.96, and RMSEA = 0.05 (C.I. 90%= 0.003-0.088). All indicators significantly loaded on the hypothesized latent constructs.

Conflict of interest: There is no conflict of interest in the present study as the authors did not receive funds from any institution. Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were by the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was also obtained from all individual participants included in the research. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.