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No. FirstView Articles (2026)

October 2026

Does making sense of a parent’s life matter? The role of vicarious life story narrative coherence in emerging adults’ well-being

  • Yağmur İlgün
  • Erkin Sarı

Journal of Happiness and Health, No. FirstView Articles (2026), 10 October 2026 , Page 99-109
https://doi.org/10.47602/johah.v6i2.179

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Abstract 1 min read

The present study examined whether narrative coherence in emerging adults’ vicarious life stories of their parents was associated with psychological well-being. A total of 305 emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 30 (171 women, 134 men; Mage = 22.74, SDage = 3.27) completed PERMA-Profiler and narrated vicarious high-point (a highly positive life event) and low-point (a highly negative life event) memories from the life of the parent to whom they felt closest. Narratives were coded for coherence using the Narrative Coherence Coding Scheme. Hierarchical regression analyses examined whether coherence predicted well-being beyond memory valence and demographic variables. Findings indicated that coherence of vicarious low-point memories significantly predicted higher psychological well-being even after controlling for memory valence, age, gender, and perceived income. In contrast, coherence of vicarious high-point memories did not remain a significant predictor after accounting for these variables. These findings suggest that the ability to coherently narrate parents’ difficult life experiences may contribute to emerging adults’ well-being by facilitating meaning-making and adaptive integration of intergenerational experiences. The study expands narrative identity research by emphasizing the psychological relevance of vicarious memories and highlighting the role of intergenerational storytelling in well-being during emerging adulthood.

Keywords:
  • Narrative identity
  • vicarious memory
  • autobiographical memory
  • narrative coherence
  • well-being
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How to Cite

İlgün, Y., & Sarı, E. (2026). Does making sense of a parent’s life matter? The role of vicarious life story narrative coherence in emerging adults’ well-being. Journal of Happiness and Health, 6(FirstView Articles), 99-109. https://doi.org/10.47602/johah.v6i2.179
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Journal of Happiness and Health (JOHAH) is a peer-reviewed journal covering happiness and provides an international forum for the science of happiness and health. The JOHAH, published twice a year, is an open-access journal that publishes research outcomes with significant contributions to the understanding and improvement of happiness and health, as well as research on the happiness of populations across the life span. The journal publishes research free of all access barriers, enabling global distribution and more citations. Journal of Happiness and Health is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.