Meaning Making and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Several theories propose that a health-related adversity threatens an individual’s worldviews, goals, and sense of purpose, which motivates them to search for meaning, and this process can lead to positive adjustment and personal growth. The purpose of our study was to (a) examine whether a health-related adversity motivated a search for meaning, (b) explore the ways individuals made sense of their health-related adversity, and (c) examine whether meaning making was related to acceptance, subjective well-being (positive affect, negative affect, satisfaction with life), and posttraumatic growth (PTG).