Youths’ Wellbeing Between Future and Uncertainty Across Cultural Contexts: A Focus on Latent Meanings as Mediational Factors

Factors like future time perspective, cultural belongings, and semiotic resources (i.e., individuals’ meanings to interpret the world), as well as worrying phenomena (climate change and armed conflicts), can harm wellbeing and increase personal distress. The study, comparing Armenian and Italian context, explores whether youths’ wellbeing (MHC-SF) and psychological distress (DASS-21) are explained by openness to time perspective (FTP), anxiety about uncertainty (IUS-R), and worry regarding climate change (CCWS) and war (WEWS), as a function of the individual semiotic resources (mapped by Views of Context [VOC]). Participants were 202-Armenian and 271-Italian young adults (Mage = 21.23, SDage = 3.35). A Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) applied to VOC extracted two dimensions of sense; a second-order MCA aggregated the extracted meanings into three clusters named Orientation towards self-care (CL1), Social and personal commitment (CL2), and Absolute devaluation and social detachment (CL3). Clusters and/or nationality significantly differentiated WEWS, CCWS, FTP, IUS, MHC-SF scores, but not DASS-21, by 3 x 2 ANOVAs. Linear regressions showed FTP and IUS as positive and negative predictors of wellbeing respectively, with a significant VOC dimension, inversely affecting DASS-21. Study highlights youths' latent meanings influence wellbeing and distress, serving as a “starting point” for health promotion interventions sensitive to cultural differences.