Title. Engagement in Meaningful Activities and its relation to social support in Finnish working-aged population. Background. Meaningful activities are beneficial for health and well-being. The Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey (EMAS) is a self-assessment instrument that measures a person’s subjective experience of the meaningfulness of everyday activities. To inform occupational therapy of diverse client experience, the EMAS was translated and tested. Aim. The aim was to describe engagement in meaningful activities and its relation to social support in the Finnish working-aged population. Material and methods. Data was collected with an online survey that included the EMAS, two social support items and demographic questions, and was analysed using statistical methods. Results. In a sample of 491 Finnish speaking 18-65 year old adults engagement in meaningful activities was rated as average. Social support was significantly associated with engagement in meaningful activities and social support moderately predicted the EMAS. Conclusions and significance. Engagement in meaningful activities in the Finnish working-aged population is in line with results of previous studies. The positive relationship between social support and meaningful activities adds to the understanding of meaningfulness. Measuring individual experience can be used in developing occupational categorisation to represent a more inclusive outlook on human occupation. Screening for social support could be useful in showing health benefits of occupational therapy.
Presentation was held in Adobe Connect on the 12th June, 2017.