Validation of the Life Metaphor Questionnaire Among Chinese College Students and Its Relationship with Meaning in Life: The Moderating Role of Depressive Symptoms

Life metaphors are cognitive tools for conceptualizing human existence and showing its essence, meaning, and characteristics. This study validated the Life Metaphor Questionnaire among Chinese college students and examined the relationship between life metaphors, meaning in life, and depressive symptoms. Study 1 (n = 1996) used item analysis, exploratory factor analyses (EFA), confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), and reliability analysis. The findings indicated that the 12-item questionnaire showed excellent internal consistency, and both the EFA and the CFA supported its three-factor structure, including fiction-related metaphors, uncertainty metaphors, and eudaimonic metaphors. Study 2 (n = 746) tested whether depressive symptoms moderated the relationship between life metaphors and meaning in life. The results showed all three life metaphor dimensions were positively correlated with meaning in life. Depressive symptoms were negatively correlated with fiction-related metaphors, eudaimonic metaphors, and meaning in life, but showed a very weak positive association with uncertainty metaphors. Depressive symptoms significantly moderated the associations of eudaimonic metaphors with both the presence of and the search for meaning; moderated the association of fiction-related metaphors with the presence of meaning, but not with the search for meaning; and did not moderate the associations of uncertainty metaphors with both the presence of and the search for meaning. The results not only advance understanding of how college students cognitively frame life meaning but also supply possible targets for future longitudinal or experimental research on meaning in life among college populations.