Is Living by Amor Fati,Coping Resiliently,or Being Authentic Most Important for Explaining Mental Health in College Students?

Abstract

In this study, based on emerging research on amor fati as an important positive existential variable, the role of amor fati, compared to resilient coping and authenticity, in accounting for mental health (viz, depressive symptoms and happiness) was examined in a sample of 336 (249 females and 87 males) college students. The results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both resilient coping and authenticity accounted for significant amounts of variance in both indices of mental health. Moreover, the inclusion of amor fati was found to further augment the prediction model of depressive symptoms and happiness. Using dominance analysis, amor fati was identified as the most robust predictor of both depressive symptoms and happiness. Although accounting for less variance, resilient coping also emerged as a robust predictor of both indices of mental health, with self-alienation as a robust predictor of depressive symptoms. These findings for amor fati add to those of other recent studies suggesting the potential value of this positive existential variable for understanding mental health in students.