Meaning of Life and Psychological Well‐Being of Individuals Undergoing Addiction Recovery: Benefits of Group Hope Therapy

ABSTRACT Objective One of the fundamental challenges of contemporary societies is dealing with the issue of addiction, which has detrimental consequences for the individual, family and community. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of group hope therapy on the meaning of life and psychological well‐being of individuals undergoing addiction recovery. Method The study employed a quasi‐experimental design with pretest and posttest control groups, coupled with a follow‐up assessment to investigate the enduring impact of the intervention. With convenience sampling, 30 clients aged 18 to 45 were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group. The Steger Meaning in Life Questionnaire and the Ryff Psychological Well‐being Scale (1995) were used to collect data during the pretest and posttest stages. Group hope therapy was conducted for eight sessions, each lasting 90 min, for the experimental group, while the control group did not receive any intervention. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for data analysis. Results The findings showed that participants in the hope therapy group demonstrated significantly higher levels of meaning in life and psychological well‐being than the control group at the posttest ( p < 0.05). These improvements were maintained at the follow‐up assessment, with no significant decline from posttest scores, indicating the stability of the intervention effects over time. Conclusion These findings suggest that integrating hope‐based therapeutic strategies, particularly goal setting, pathway thinking and agency thinking, into routine addiction recovery programmes may strengthen psychological well‐being and enhance meaning in life among individuals undergoing recovery.