In a recent study, self-perceived temporal, causal and thematic coherence and awareness of life stories relating to autobiographical memories were also robustly correlated with psychological resources of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and meaning in life ( Hallford and Mellor, 2017). In support of this, a range of studies have found that more coherent accounts of past experiences are associated with higher levels of psychological well-being ( Baerger and McAdams, 1999 Waters and Fivush, 2015 Reese et al., 2017 Lind et al., 2020 Mitchell et al., 2020). Indeed, Waters and Fivush (2015) suggest that having coherent accounts of one's experience may be a critical feature of psychological health and, in particular, foundational to a sense of personal agency. Some of these themes, as well as coherency itself, have been linked with psychological well-being (e.g., McAdams et al., 2001 Tavernier and Willoughby, 2012 McAdams and McLean, 2013 Liao et al., 2015). Therefore, coherence is fundamental to narrative content about oneself, such as personal agency, overcoming stressful experiences, and turning-points in life. As suggested by Habermas and Bluck (2000), this includes knowing when experiences occurred in time (temporal coherence), the causal relationships between them and how change occurred in their life and identity (causal coherence) and recognizing themes about one's life through abstracting experiences and meaning making (thematic coherence). Indeed, coherency in autobiographical thinking is suggested to be a crucial component in developing and maintaining self-identity ( Habermas and Bluck, 2000 Adler et al., 2015). These experiences can encompass specific events, recurring or generalized events, and life periods or “chapters.” Fundamental to the integration of experiences is the ability to form coherent accounts of these experiences across one's life. This involves an implicit or explicit process of connecting and integrating personal past experiences (autobiographical memory) to create unity and continuity. Narrative identity refers to the evolving story about one's life and self that is constructed through the comprehension of one's personal experiences. It extends on our understanding by showing this occurs through changes in self-concept. Overall, the findings provide further evidence that the perception of how events have unfolded and impacted on one's life and sense of self is particularly important in mitigating depressive symptoms. Limitations of the study include no examination of cultural background as a moderating factor and the short time-intervals. The results of a path analysis model, controlling for depressive symptoms at baseline, indicated that perceived causal coherence was the only unique predictor of later depressive symptoms, and that this occurred through positive self-concept, represented by self-esteem and self-efficacy. The surveys contained measures of the perceived coherence of life stories and autobiographical memories, psychological resources, and depressive symptoms. A sample of 160 participants ( M age = 26.4, SD = 3.2, 58.1% women) completed surveys at three time-points spaced 1 week apart. Further, it aimed to specify mediators through which this association might occur, namely psychological resources of self-esteem self-efficacy, meaning in life, and optimism. This study aimed to advance this understanding by assessing whether coherence predicted depressive symptoms over time in adults. The coherence of autobiographical memories plays an important role in psychological well-being, as borne out by recent studies. 3Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.2Applied Cognitive Psychology Unit Institute of Neurological Disabilities (IDINE), Department of Psychology, School of Education, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain.1School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia. David John Hallford 1 * Jorge Javier Ricarte 2 Dirk Hermans 3
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