Abstract
The psychological construct of ‘ikigai’ reflects the sense of having a ‘reason for living’ and has been associated with various positive health-related outcomes. This study presents an English translation of the Ikigai-9, empirically explores the manifestation of ikigai in the UK, and outlines its associations with facets of well-being. Three hundred forty-nine participants self-reported levels of ikigai as well as state measures of mental well-being, depression, anxiety and stress. Confirmatory factor analysis did not support the original three-factor model, favouring instead a single-factor solution. Results indicated that above sex and age, ikigai predicted greater scores of mental well-being and lower scores of depression. The Ikigai-9 has high internal reliability and presents a logistically convenient measure of ikigai for English-speaking populations. However, further validation (e.g. test-retest reliability) is required to develop a better understanding of the potential protective role of ikigai in mental health.
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This work was funded by departmental funding awarded to DF and YK by the University of Derby.
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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all participants before being included in the study.
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Fido, D., Kotera, Y. & Asano, K. English Translation and Validation of the Ikigai-9 in a UK Sample. Int J Ment Health Addiction 18, 1352–1359 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00150-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00150-w